How many years have we advanced resulting from Daylight Savings Time?
e.g. if you subtract all the hours we have advanced, what year would it be?

Hello geduget,

Actually there has been no change in time as a result of Daylights
Saving Time. The reason for this is that although we advance ahead an
hour, we also go back an hour during the winter. Because we go ahead
an hour and also back an hour every year, there is no impact on time
over the long term.

"The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time (called "Summer Time" many
places in the world) is to make better use of daylight. We change our
clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the
morning to the evening."
Source: http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html

I found a website for you that lists all the different continents and
many countries with both the date that time is set ahead, and then the
date that time is set back again. You can find it here:
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/g.html

I hope this was the type of research you were looking for. If you need
any clarifications regarding this answer, please let me know and I
will do my best to further assist you.

tisme-ga


Search Strategy:

daylight saving time
://www.google.com/search?q=daylight+saving+time+

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Clarification of Answer by tisme-ga on 10 Apr 2003 13:22 PDT

Hello geduget, 

I am sorry that you were not satisfied with my answer. Unfortunately I
answered it as best as I could backing it up with sources. It would
have been easy to tell you that we have advanced 4 or 5 years since
1900, but that would be a garbage answer. The fact remains that
because we advance, but also go back... we have not advanced any years
or even any hours at all.

All the best,

tisme-ga

I appreciate the information, but it is information I already have. 
The posted comment estimating that we would be about 1999 had noone
done the time change is more to the point of my question.

It should be noted that, although many people say "Daylight Savings
Time," the proper usage is "Daylight Saving Time."

Here is an informative page of information:

"The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS
Time.

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies
time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is
characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving
daylight kind of time. Similar examples would be dog walking time or
book reading time. Since saving is a verb describing a single type of
activity, the form is singular.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an 's') flows
more mellifluously off the tongue, and Daylight Savings Time is also
in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

Part of the confusion is because the phrase Daylight Saving Time is
inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting
Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable. In fact,
scientifically misguided politicians sometimes misunderstand. In 1995,
the British Time (Extra Daylight) Bill was introduced by John
Butterfill, attempting the impossible -- to legislate extra daylight.
The bill did not pass."

http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html

I will guess we would be at about 1999 in technology, if no one had
done day light saving time. On the average it is quite helpful to some
people and a serious inconvenience for very few.   Neil

I am astonished that anyone would prefer a commenter's "guess" to a
researcher's documented answer.

Dear Geduget:

Just wanted to pop in to say that unless you tell a Researcher what
you have already discovered, they have no way of knowing.  We practice
our psychic skills all the time but they are seldom effective.  :)

Using the Clarification feature before rating an answer is a great
option at Google Answers for both the customer and the Researcher, so
please note that you may request Clarifications before rating a
Researcher on his/her time and effort.

The comment under the rating is, I must say, rather befuddling. The
question appears to ask asks for a raw algebraic calculation of the
time advanced, which is correctly answered as zero. The comment about
1999 says "in technology," implying that we have advanced
technologically because of some sort of increased productivity. I
wouldn't believe that at all. Daylight Saving Time in the US didn't
become national law until 1974, and the earliest legal application was
during World War I. By 1920, 35% of all homes in the US had
electricity and certainly a high percentage of science and industrial
labs, so I don't see daylight impacting the forward progress of
technology significantly by the time DST was implemented. Also note
that DST, despite the arguments for energy savings, was initially
pushed in the US by a recreational golfer.