daylight in lubbock, texas and taipei, taiwan in summer 2010
DESCRIPTION
In summer 2010, did Lubbock, Texas have more sunlight than Taipei, Taiwan?TRANSCRIPT
- 1. Introduction
Its been few years for me living in Lubbock, Texas after left home in Taiwan. I have always felt that summers never end in Lubbock, in which it have much more sunlight when I was in Taiwan. Is it an illusion for me because I have notgone back to Taiwan in summer time in the past years? Or it is an actual scientific proof that it is the difference. So the question I want to ask is In summer 2010, did Lubbock, Texas have more sunlight than Taipei, Taiwan? In particular, I will only determine the summer time in 2010 in both places. What I mean summer time is only from June 1st to August 31st.Before starting collecting some data, let me begin with the geographies of two different cities.
Shih-Hsuan Wei
2. Lubbock is a city of the state of Texas. It is located in the
northwestern part of the state, located at3333 N, 10152 W.The state
of Texas is 1279 km (790 mi) long and 1244 km (773 mi) wide of
total 696,241 km2 (268, 581 mi2) with the population of 25
million.
Lubbock.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock,_Texas
Viewed 2.23, 2011.
3. Taiwan, also known as Formosa (Beautiful Island), is an island
situated in East Asia in the Western Pacific Ocean, and located
at2330 N, 12100 E. The main island of the group is 394 km (245 mi)
long and 144 km (89 mi) wide of total 35,980 km2 (13, 892 mi2) with
the population of 23 million. Taipei city is the capital of the
Taiwan, located northern part of the island.
Taiwan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan
Viewed. 2,23, 2011.
4. Now we have some idea where Lubbock, Texas and Taipei, Taiwan
are. Then we can start finding some data about sunrise and sunset
in both cities in 2010. The best resource to collect these data is
the Naval Oceanography Portal website
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php.The U.S. Naval
Observatory (USNO) provides a wide range of astronomical data, in
particular, you can find table of sunrise/ sunset for an entire
year for any location in the world.
5. Start with Lubbock, Texas:
Lubbock, sunrise/set.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php
Viewed. 2,23, 2011.
6. 7. Figure 1: Sunrise/set time in Lubbock, Texas in 2010.
8. Since we only consider the summer time, we will only look at the
data of sunrise/sunset from June 1st to August 31st in 2010. With a
little bid math that we can obtain the daylight of each day by
calculating the difference between sunrise and sunset everyday i.e.
subtract the sunrise from sunset. For instance, the daylight on
June 1st, 2010 can be calculated by 1953 538 = 1416, i.e. it had a
14 hours and 16 minutes of daylight on June 1st, 2010.
9. However, lets look at the daylight of July 1st, 2010. 2002 -
0541 = 1461, there is something odd here. How would you have 14
hours and 61 minutes? Then we should modify it a bid. Since 1 hour
= 60 minutes. The following is the correct way to calculate the
daylight on July 1st, 2010.1. 2002 = 1962 (since 1 hr = 60 min) 2.
1962 0541 = 1421i.e. there was 14 hours 21 minutes of daylight on
July 1st,2010. So with the tool of Excel and some modification, we
come out the next table. In addition, we only consider the data
from June 1st to August 31 in 2010.
10. Figure 2: Modification of sunlight in Lubbock, Texas in summer
2010.
11. After the calculation and modification, we have the summations
of sunlight in June, July and August respectively in the
following.
Figure 3: Summation of sunlight in Lubbock, Texas in summer
2010.
12. Next, lets look at daylight in Taipei, Taiwan. We will use the
coordinate as Longitude: W 121 degrees 30 minutes and Latitude: N
25 degrees 3 minutes, and the time zone as 8 hours east of
Greenwich. (The tiny island in H zone.)
Time Zone Map.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/world_tzones.php
Viewed. 2, 23, 2011.
13. Taipei, sunrise/set.
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php
Viewed. 2,23, 2011.
14. 15. Figure 4: Sunrise/set time in Taipei, Taiwan in 2010.
16. There is something weird in the data table. The sun rose at
2251 and set at 928 on January 1st, 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan. Does
that make any sense? The sun rise at the night and the sun set in
the morning. What kind of place is that? There must be something
wrong. Nothing is wrong it is because Taipei, Taiwan is 8 hours
ahead of Greenwich. That means when it is 10:00 am in Greenwich, it
is 6:00 pm in Taipei. So the following table is the correct time
after the modification.
17. Again, we only consider the summer time (June to August).
Figure 5: Sunlight in Taipei, Taiwan in summer 2010.
18. The following table is the summations of sunlight in June, July
and August in 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan, and the total daylight from
June to August.
Figure 6: Summationof sunlight in Taipei, Taiwan in summer
2010.
19. Now we have the summation of sunlight in Lubbock, Texas and
Taipei, Taiwan in summer 2011. The following table represents the
difference between these two cities.
Figure 7: Excel graph shows the sunlight between two citiesin
summer 2010.
20. The following excel graph represents the total sunlight time in
Lubbock, Texas and Taipei, Taiwan in summer 2010.
Figure 8: Excel graph shows the total sunlight time intwo citiesin
summer 2010.
21. As the result came out, the daylight in Lubbock, Texas was more
than in Taipei, Taiwan in Summer 2010. Thus,what I have felt was
right that summers seem never end in Lubbock, Texas. In the
following, there are some scientific proofs based on the latitude
and longitude in the world, and some interesting fact about the
daylight-saving time adjustment in the U.S. and in Taiwan.
22. In general, the length of a day varies throughout the year, and
it depends on the latitude.
World map with latitude and longitude
http://fr.mapsofworld.com/world-maps/world-map-with-latitude-and-longitude.html
Viewed. 2, 23, 2011.
23. This variation is caused by the tilt of the Earths axis of
rotation with respect tot the ecliptic plane of the Earth around
the sun.
Earths axis.
http://blog.xuite.net/wellsli/002/35113257
Viewed. 2, 23, 2011.
24. Because the Earths revolution around the sun on one side, while
around its axis. The axis with the public-axis orbital plane into
66.5 degrees angle, making the Earths movement in orbit, and with
different relative position of the sun that varies the existence
pointbetween the Tropic of Cancer. Before coming to the U.S., I
know the time difference between the U.S. and Taiwan would be
adjusted for summers and winters. For example, the time difference
between California and Taiwan in summeris 15 hours, but it becomes
16 hours in the winter.
25. When I needed to call my friends in Los Angles, California, I
had to call at midnight in Taiwan, and Id have to call around 1 in
morning in the winter. This is because of the daylight-saving time
(DST) adjustment, the summer sunlight has longer time in higher
latitudes. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour in the
spring and are adjusted backward in autumn . It is the practice of
temporarily advancing clocks during the summertime so that
afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less.
26. Currently, there are about 110 countries around the world using
daylight-saving time. Since the season in southern hemisphere is
opposite to the northern hemisphere, DST are adjusted oppositely
during the seasons. The countries in low-latitude have relatively
fixed duration of sunshine, there is no need for DST. Does the
small island like Taiwan have DST? No, no any more. But there were
some researches said Taiwan had DST before.
27. Actually, Taiwan implemented DST from 1945 to 1961, revoked DST
from 1962 to 1973, reinstated 1974 to 1975, and abandoned DST from
1976 onwards. There were two main reasons behind it:1. Time
adjustment caused trouble in society.2. The limitation of DST
because Taiwan is located in the subtropical region.
28. The oil crisis in 1970s, the government of Taiwan had a brief
resume of DST system, but it caused a lot of grievances then it
quickly canceled.Actually, Taiwan implemented DST from 1945 to
1961, revoked DST from 1962 to 1973, reinstated 1974 to 1975, and
abandoned DST from 1976 onwards. But the so-called grievances, it
were most the product of the bureaucratic system.
29. Therefore, people living in Taiwan do not need to adjust the
clock with the seasons. Although I have calculated the time
difference with the winter and summer between Taipei, Taiwan and
other cities around the world before coming to the U.S., but it has
been very interesting to me to experience the daylight-saving time
adjustment.
30. ReferencesDay length. Retrieved February 25, 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_length .Geographic Names
Information System. Retrieved February 23, 2011, from
http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=154:1:413510313315132
Geography of Lubbock, Texas. Retrieved February 22, 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock,_Texas. Geography of Taiwan.
Retrieved February 22, 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Taiwan. Latitude and
Longitude. Retrieved February 23, 2011, from
http://blog.xuite.net/wellsli/002/35113257.
31. ReferencesMap of World.com. Retrieved February 21, 2011,
fromhttp://fr.mapsofworld.com/world-maps/world-map-with-latitude-and-longitude.html
.National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Retrieved February 22,
2011, fromhttp://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html.National
Science Teachers Association. Retrieved February 22, 2011, from
http://learningcenter.nsta.org/?lid=tnavhp.U. S. Naval
Observatory.Retrieved February 24, 2011,
fromhttp://aa.usno.navy.mil/ data/.Time difference between Taipei
and Greenwich. Retrieved February 23, 2011, from
http://www.happyzebra.com/timezones-worldclock/difference-between-Taipei-and-Greenwich%20Borough.php.