[joshuamorton]

Why does the position of the sun have any relation to the legal time?

> This could affect everything from university applications to boating licenses to social security.

Last time I looked, a boating license required you to be a certain age. Dec 31 and Jan 1 are still just as far apart as July 6 and July 7.

[0x0]

Some countries have boating license laws that are different depending on whether your DOB year is >= 1980, as an example for this type of "grandfathering cutoff".