Did you remember to set your clocks ahead by one hour over the weekend? Hope so since Daylight Savings Time began on Sunday! Daylight Savings Time refers to the practice of setting our clocks forward in the spring (“spring forward”) and one hour back in the fall (“fall back”). This adds more hours of daylight to our working or school day between April and October.
Daylight Savings Time hasn’t always been observed in the United States (nor is it observed today by all localities in this country). Historians trace the concept of Daylight Savings Time to Benjamin Franklin who made the recommendation in a humorous essay published in 1784 under the title “An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.” Nearly one-hundred years later, railroads began using “standard time zones” to help with their scheduling. Variations in how different places set their clocks had made it very confusing for anyone trying to move goods by railroad. The system of International Standard Time was adopted in 1884 during the International Prime Meridian Conference. Although this created standard time zones, it did not revive Benjamin Franklin’s idea of Daylight Savings Time.
Daylight Savings Time was established by an act of Congress during World War I as a way to conserve energy. The law proved to be unpopular and was repealed in 1919. During the second World War, Daylight Savings Time was reinstated and following the war, it was repealed once again. Finally, Congress passed the “Uniform Time Act of 1966” in order to standardize Daylight Savings Time. Under the law, Daylight Savings Time began on the last Sunday in April and ended on the last Sunday in October. In 1986, the beginning date was changed to the first Sunday in April. States and localities are permitted to exempt themselves from Daylight Savings Time.
The United States extended Daylight Savings Time from 6 months per year to 10 months in 1974 and 8 months in 1975 following the Arab Oil Embargo. Suppose that 10,000 barrels of oil were conserved during each extra day of Daylight Savings Time for those two years. How many barrels of oil would have been conserved in 1974 and 1975? (For this problem, assume each month has 30 days.)