It's Solar Time!

摘要

The winter solstice is, of course, the shortest day of the year. But if you watch the sun carefully, you'll notice something odd: The solstice is neither the day with the latest sunrise (that's two weeks later) nor the one with the earliest sunset (two weeks before). During the winter months, the solar day-the time from solar noon (when the sun is highest in the sky) to the next solar noon-is longer than 24 hours. Since your clock sticks with its regular, boring, 24-hour cycles, solar noon comes a bit later each day.