Most of us think that half of the world's population is in darkness when the other half is in sunshine. Not so. For a brief moment yesterday (Saturday 8 July), only one percent of the world’s population experienced a complete lack of sunlight, reports National Geographic.
Ninety-nine percent of the world’s population, nearly eight billion people, were able to see at least some sunlight at the same moment - for about a minute just after 7 a.m. Eastern Time (12 noon GMT), but not everyone, of course, experienced the same intensity of the sun’s rays.
People living as far east as Japan saw just a hint of evening light while people living as far west as California could only see the faintest glimpses of early morning light. North and South America, Europe, Africa, and most of Asia experienced more direct sunlight while Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands were in darkness.
This moment of near universal light isn’t as rare as you might think. A 60-day window from May to July experiences essentially the same effect, with more than 98 percent of humans on Earth getting some light from the sun for a few minutes.
In case you think that this must all be a bit of a misunderstanding, it has been fact-checked by Time and Date, a Norway-based website that tracks and calculates temporal phenomena.
Their research showed that the claim that 99 percent of the world's population could see sunlight simultaneously was true - with some caveats.
To count 99 percent of the population, all light from the sun counts, even dark twilight. Only around 83 percent of the world experienced “true daylight” when the sun is between dawn and dusk. Sixteen percent of the world saw some version of twilight, including the darkest form of twilight, a time of day when the light outside is nearly indistinguishable from night.
The other crucial factor is where people live. This phenomenon occurs partly because the world’s population is concentrated on land, partly because 90 percent of Earth's population lives in the northern hemisphere, and partly because the portion of Earth that will be in pure night light at 7 a.m Eastern Time falls over the Pacific Ocean, an expansive area covering about a third of the globe.
Today's Articles
Age Positivity: New research shows that having a positive attitude to ageing can stop or reverse memory loss. Upbeat thinking...
Unlikely Anthem: A British singer's hit ballad has become a morale-boosting comfort blanket for many in Ukraine. Another Love...