The Compliance of the Winter Solstice

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The winter solstice marks the longest night and shortest day of the year with the latest dawn and the sun at its lowest point in the sky. Its the shortest day of the year. But that is not entirely true and we see a problem of scope, bias, and definition.

solsitice

The solstice happens at the same instant for all of us, everywhere on Earth. This year the solstice occurs on Tuesday December 22nd at 04:49 GMT (Universal time).

The first problem with my opening paragraph is bias. It’s not winter for everyone. In the Southern Hemisphere its summer. Explorers in the Antarctic are enjoying long, long hours of sunlight.

The second problem is using a singular time to define something else. The December Solstice marks a single point in time. The longest day or night may fall on either side of the event time.

It’s not true that it’s the earliest sunset and latest sunrise of the year. Earth’s orbit is not round so sunsets have already begun to be later in the North Hemisphere.

What does this have to do with compliance?

Are you describing things accurately in your program? Sometimes you need to rethink the description to make things work and meet your obligations.

It also means that the we are coming out to of the darkness. Hopefully you will have some time to celebrate the end of the year and the longer daytime hours. At least if you are North of the Equator.

Author: Doug Cornelius

You can find out more about Doug on the About Doug page

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