Into the (Bright) Danish Night!

I've got to tell you that when I first went to Denmark with the Center for International Understanding, I was a bit ticked.  You see, the agenda that they had set for us was full from the crack of dawn until the crack of dusk. 

We were scheduled to get up at 7 each day, get on busses at 8, get shuttled around to meetings (which were almost always held inside colleges), sit and listen attentively for hours and hours and hours, and then be free around 6 pm every night. 

"You're kidding!" I shouted when I saw our schedule the first time.  "I'm not going to Denmark to sit in college classrooms all day for 10 days.  I want more free time to explore.  I want to check out Danish restaurants, visit Danish shops, meet some Danish people.  How am I supposed to do that if we're stuck in meetings until 6 pm every night?!"

Little did I know that the "crack of dusk" during the summer months in Denmark is COMPLETELY different than the "crack of dusk" here in the good ol' U.S. of A!  Instead of stumbling around in the dark for hours after getting out of our sessions, I had at least 4 or 5 good hours of daylight to explore.

No joke---it didn't get dark (in the creepy Halloween evening kind of way) until about 11 pm---and then daylight came back again by 3 am!  Even crazier:  There were literally HUNDREDS of people hanging out long past my typical bed-time. The town square in Copenhagen---where I spent a bunch of my time each evening hanging out with friends---was constantly crowded with people enjoying the Great Outdoors!

Don't believe me?  Then check out this video:

Click To Play

So how would having an extra five hours of daylight change your life?  Would it make things better or worse? 

Better question (for all those science oriented folk out there):  Why, exactly, do countries further north on the globe have long days in the summer and long nights in the winter? 

That's something I've never been able to figure out!

Image retrieved from http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post?blog_id=1341986 on February 7, 2008.

Comments

[Some Guy]

Mr. Ferriter asked, “Why, exactly, do countries further north on the globe have long days in the summer and long nights in the winter?”

In answer to the question above, it is because of the tilt and shape of the earth. During the summer, the north pole of the earth is tilted toward the sun. Denmark, being so far up north, gets more sunshine than the countries around the equator. But, in winter, the North Pole is pointed away from the sun, making the days in northern countries much shorter.

Mr. Ferriter also asked, “So how would having an extra five hours of daylight change your life? Would it make things better or worse?”

Having extra daylight would definitely change our lives. Your video showed Danes very active even at 10:00 P.M. They were taking advantage of the daylight. I would think that most attractions would be open sooner and closed later. That may make it easier to get a reservation for something that is very popular when the times are stretched out like that.

At the same time, it would be hard not to go to bed late. With school and all, I would be tired which is unhealthy (that, and I like my rest). I usually know it’s about time to go to bed when the sun sets. But, without that, I would need to get used to checking my watch every now and then.

Here’s something you may not have considered. If you had an extra five hours of day in the summer, you would also have an extra five hours of night in winter. Wouldn’t that also change the way you live. I have faced a lot of changes, but I don’t think that I would want to live where the seasons keep changing my daily life.
I can connect this to human-environment interaction even though it isn’t really involving the environment. The change of seasons in Denmark molds the lives of the people. So, I guess humans aren’t always changing the environment to appease themselves.

Some Guy the Aardvark

[LP Rules!!!]

I think this is really cool because you get four or five hours of extra daylight! It would impact my life positively and negatively because on one side, I can stay out for longer and enjoy the day more. However, the downside of the extra daylight is that you can’t get to sleep if you don’t have blackout curtains! The reason why the day lasts for 20 hours at a time is because Denmark is quite far up in the North. One half of the year is almost all day and the other half is a lot of night. The same thing happens with other countries near the poles.

- LP Rules!!!

[Nina]

I think that it is amazing that people can sleep at night. Was it hard? I would sure have a problem with that!

I think that five more hours of light would mess up my sleeping pattern if I was just visiting, but if I was living there I guess I would get used to it.

When I have dace recitals and rehersals I stay up about two hours more than my regular bed time. I can not imagine doing that every day.

Do you think it would be hard to go back into a different time change?

[PittsburgFan87]

Mr. F asked “how would having an extra five hours of daylight change your life? Would it make things better or worse?” An extra five ours would change my life dramatically. That would mean I would be able to play with my friends a lot more. We wouldn’t have to come inside at 7:30, we could come inside at 9 and it would still be light out. But it would also be bad, an example say your curtains broke and u have a big test the next day. You would have to go to sleep in broad daylight and that is extremely difficult.

You also asked “why countries further north have long days in the summer and long nights in the winter?” During the summer the Earth tilts on its side towards the sun. Because of the tilt, those countries further north, like Denmark, get more exposure to the sun and therefore longer days. It's the opposite in the winter. The Earth tilts away from the sun, which explains why countries up north have longer nights.

[Quatre]

The question was: Why are countries farther north light longer than, say, America? That is because they are tilted toward the Sun in the summer, so while the planet rotates, the Sun keeps shining on Denmark. It also forces the Danes to adapt. They already have, by putting blackout curtains in most windows to block out the Sun. That is sort of what eyelids do, block out the Sun. Humans have built in curtains!
Quatre

[caroline]

Mr F. asked, so how would having an extra five hours of daylight change your life? Would it make things better or worse?

This really gets me thinking. I think that if you had 5 extra hours I would want to go outside and play all the time. But I know when to come back in and what time it is because of when it gets dark. I know here in the summer it stays light till about 8:30. In the fall it gets dark around 5:30. So if you depend on the time by the sky, being there you would not be able to use that trick.

Though the time is one thing, finally going to bed may be hard. If I lived there I would have to be in a room with no windows to sleep. The light that seeps in the room would wake me up or keep me from even going to bed. On the bright side, you would be able to stay out later for longer. You could see in the light at night so you could travel longer. Having the light on your side, when we drive at night we must use head lights to see. There you would not have to use them then. That would save battery from your car.

Here is a question, if they can’t tell time by the light, would they have more big clocks around the city?

From,
bunnyheart014

[Kajal]

I thought it was amazing that there are so many hours of daylight in the summer of Denmark. You asked in your article “So how would having an extra five hours of daylight change your life? Would it make things better or worse?” I think it could be bad or good. It could be bad because it would be hard to sleep at home knowing that it is still nice outside. Another bad thing about it is that you might loss track of time since it is almost always sunny outside. It could also be good because then you can spend more time outside instead of going home when it gets dark.

[Philip Kinney]

Wow that must have been cool. I didn't realised that happens, because as you know I am going to Europe this summer and London and Copenhagen are only about 600 miles away, so I wonder if it will be similer in London.