Geometric intricacies, help delay the day of equal day and night.
Thursday was the day of the equinox, and on such a day, we often expect that the Latin derivation of the word would prevail and that day and night would be equal, as the construction of the word implies.On Monday, however, we could say with greater assurance, and on the basis of authoritative sources, that we had finally arrived at the day of equality, a day that satisfied the desire to see planetary law obeyed and Earth’s order upheld.
On Thursday in Washington, the specialists say, the deviation from expectation involved geometrical intricacies of the sun and the Earth, and the laws governing the refraction of light.As a result of the tilt of Earth’s axis, for half the year we enjoy more daylight than darkness; and for the other half, we spend more time in darkness.
So if it is not on the day of the equinox, a day must come when the light and the dark are equal. This year, that day appeared to be Monday. In its preliminary climate summary for Washington, the National Weather Service gave the time of Monday’s sunrise as 6:59 a.m. It gave the time of Monday’s sunset as 12 hours later: 6:59 p.m.
But days grow steadily shorter. On Tuesday, the Weather Service said, the sun will rise at 7 a.m., and set at 6:57 p.m. And on that day, and for months to come, we will have less daylight than darkness.