2010 when is daylight savings time

Does it really save energy? Is it bad for your health? Get expert answers below. For most Americans, daylight saving time ends in at 2 a. Time will spring forward again on March 13, , when daylight saving time resumes. The federal government doesn't require U. National surveys by Rasmussen Reports , for example, show that 83 percent of respondents knew when to move their clocks ahead in spring Twenty-seven percent, though, admitted they'd been an hour early or late at least once in their lives because they hadn't changed their clocks correctly.

The clock-setting confusion is enough to make you wonder—why do we do use daylight saving time in the first place? Ben Franklin—of "early to bed and early to rise" fame—was apparently the first person to suggest the concept of daylight savings, according to computer scientist David Prerau , author of the book Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time.

While serving as U. Imagine the resources that might be saved if he and others rose before noon and burned less midnight oil, Franklin, tongue half in cheek, wrote to a newspaper. It wasn't until World War I that daylight savings were realized on a grand scale. Germany was the first state to adopt the time changes, to reduce artificial lighting and thereby save coal for the war effort.

Friends and foes soon followed suit. In the U. Between February 9, , and September 30, , the government took it a step further. During this period daylight saving time was observed year-round, essentially making it the new standard time, if only for a few years. But its beginning and end have shifted—and occasionally disappeared.

During the Arab oil embargo, the U. Thirty years later the Energy Policy Act of was enacted, mandating a controversial monthlong extension of daylight saving time, starting in In recent years several studies have suggested that daylight saving time doesn't actually save energy—and might even result in a net loss. Environmental economist Hendrik Wolff , of the University of Washington, co-authored a paper that studied Australian power-use data when parts of the country extended daylight saving time for the Sydney Olympics and others did not.

The researchers found that the practice reduced lighting and electricity consumption in the evening but increased energy use in the now dark mornings—wiping out the evening gains. Likewise, Matthew Kotchen, an economist at the University of California, saw in Indiana a situation ripe for study.

As the bombs were being planted, they exploded--one hour too early--killing three terrorists instead of the intended victims--two busloads of people. Through , Daylight Saving Time in the U. A new law to extend DST to the first Sunday in November took effect in , with the purpose of providing trick-or-treaters more light and therefore more safety from traffic accidents. For decades, candy manufacturers lobbied for a Daylight Saving Time extension to Halloween, as many of the young trick-or-treaters gathering candy are not allowed out after dark, and thus an added hour of light means a big holiday treat for the candy industry.

Anecdotally, the switch may not have had much effect, as it appeared that children simply waited until dark to go trick-or-treating. Widespread confusion was created during the s and s when each U.

One year, 23 different pairs of DST start and end dates were used in Iowa alone. And, on one Ohio to West Virginia bus route, passengers had to change their watches seven times in 35 miles!

The situation led to millions of dollars in costs to several industries, especially those involving transportation and communications. The Minnesota cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul once didn't have twin perspectives with regard to the clock. These two large cities are adjacent at some points and separated only by the Mississippi River at others, and are considered a single metropolitan area. In , St. Paul decided to begin its Daylight Saving Time period early to conform to most of the nation, while Minneapolis felt it should follow Minnesota's state law, which stipulated a later start date.

After intense inter-city negotiations and quarreling, the cities could not agree, and so the one-hour time difference went into effect, bringing a period of great time turmoil to the cities and surrounding areas. Patrons of bars that stay open past a. This has led to annual problems in numerous locations, and sometimes even to riots. For example, at a "time disturbance" in Athens, Ohio, site of Ohio University, over 1, students and other late night partiers chanted "Freedom," as they threw liquor bottles at the police attempting to control the riot.

AM radio signals propagate much further at night than during the day. During daytime, more stations in neighboring areas can broadcast on the same frequency without interfering with each other. Because of this situation, there are hundreds of stations licensed to operate only in the daytime. The current schedule was introduced in and follows the Energy Policy Act of The law does not affect the rights of the states and territories that choose not to observe DST.

Historically, there were no uniform rules for DST from to This caused widespread confusion, especially in transport and broadcasting. To republish, copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to MinnPost. If you have questions, email editors minnpost.

By Chris Richardson Nov. It's Nov. Also known as "summer time" in the UK and "war time" during World War II, the seasonal time change was a hot-button political issue for most of the 20th century.