OT: Time Zones

[CycleChic06]

Can anyone explain to me this mystery? Why is India GMT +5.30 hrs? Where the heck does the extra half and hour come from??

[IFjane]

Good question! I wanna know, too - any time zone experts out there???

[jobob]

um ... I dunno ... the position of the sun?

Time zones in parts of Australia and other areas of Asia/Pacific, and Newfoundland, are 1/2 hour off as well.

Here's a great site to look up the local time anywhere:
http://www.timeanddate.com/

[Duck on Wheels]

Uhmmmm, lessee if I remember from my Geography major 35 years ago. Time zones are a compromise between two kinds of precision, social and natural. Do we all want to agree on what time it is? Or do we want time to make sense in terms of the height of the sun, rotation of the planet etc. To agree on what time it is over decent chunks of geographical space, we've made these more or less arbitrary divisions into "hours". Why hours? Why 24? Why not 20? Or 50? or 11? Historians have discussed how this happened, but basically it was an arbitrary decision that worked well enough given the ways clocks had developed up to then and the speeds and distances folks travelled back when the decisions were made.

Back then there was political rivalry over where to start counting. Paris? London? Again, historians can tell you how it wound up being Greenwich, but whatever the specifics the decision was political, and in that sense arbitrary.

Why do the zone lines make zigs and zags? Why have some places added or subtracted half an hour? That has to do with local adjustments so that time in some politically important place or across some functional social area is uniform and matches reasonably well with the height of the sun. After all, dividing the circumfrence of the earth into 24 exactly equal and straight-edged sections starting at Greenwich would make for some strange situations, like an hour's difference between one side of a street and another, or even one side of the bed and another. So local adjustments have been made.

Does that make sense now? If so, then I'm probably remembering it correctly. If not, I'll have to go back and look it up.

[IFjane]

Thank you Duck - it does make sense - but I'm willing to bet, even with zig-zag lines and such there are still places where the time is an hour off on either side of the street! or meadow....or lake....:rolleyes:

[Tuckervill]

It's how many hours you are, plus or minus, from Greenwich Mean Time.

Karen

[CycleChic06]

Uhmmmm, lessee if I remember from my Geography major 35 years ago. Time zones are a compromise between two kinds of precision, social and natural. Do we all want to agree on what time it is? Or do we want time to make sense in terms of the height of the sun, rotation of the planet etc. To agree on what time it is over decent chunks of geographical space, we've made these more or less arbitrary divisions into "hours". Why hours? Why 24? Why not 20? Or 50? or 11? Historians have discussed how this happened, but basically it was an arbitrary decision that worked well enough given the ways clocks had developed up to then and the speeds and distances folks travelled back when the decisions were made.

Back then there was political rivalry over where to start counting. Paris? London? Again, historians can tell you how it wound up being Greenwich, but whatever the specifics the decision was political, and in that sense arbitrary.

Why do the zone lines make zigs and zags? Why have some places added or subtracted half an hour? That has to do with local adjustments so that time in some politically important place or across some functional social area is uniform and matches reasonably well with the height of the sun. After all, dividing the circumfrence of the earth into 24 exactly equal and straight-edged sections starting at Greenwich would make for some strange situations, like an hour's difference between one side of a street and another, or even one side of the bed and another. So local adjustments have been made.

Does that make sense now? If so, then I'm probably remembering it correctly. If not, I'll have to go back and look it up.


Thanks Duck, that makes sense. I looked at a map of the world timezones and noticed that you are right, there are a few areas that are a half an hour off from everywhere else. It's also interesting that the ENTIRE Indian Subcontinent is in the same time zone and not divided up.

[Kitsune06]

...is it fair to still totally and completely hate the concept of time zones?

[chickwhorips]

what happens if you live and go to school on one side of a time zone and the other side is your work. which time zone do you follow?

[li10up]

If we didn't have time zones then at 10:00 am, for example, it would still be pitch dark in many places but broad daylight in others. I can't imagine a world without time zones.

[mtkitchn]

I'm flying to Sydney in March and will lose March 13th altogether. THAT is scary!!!:eek:

[chickwhorips]

i lost december 2nd last year, but had two dec 24th (or a really long one.)

gotta love flying over the international date line.

[IFjane]

i lost december 2nd last year, but had two dec 24th (or a really long one.)

gotta love flying over the international date line.

OMG. I have a hard enough time flying from coast-to-coast.....I can't imagine keeping up with whole days! :eek:

[light_sabe_r]

Can't explain where it comes from, All I know is SA is Half an hour ahead of QLD at the moment because of Daylight savings... and SA is WEST of Queensland.

>_< I feel sorry for the peeople of Coolangatta (gold coast QLD) and the Tweed (NSW)... You can basically cross the street and be in a different time zone at the moment.

[Duck on Wheels]

Russia covers, I think, five time zones, but the Transiberian Railway keeps Moscow time all the way to the Pacific. So if you live in, say, Irkutsk, you have one time outside the railway station and another time inside, and one time for Transsiberian train schedules and another for local trains. I guess it gives people something to work on mentally during the long, dreary Siberian winters.

[Fredwina]

Russia covers, I think, five time zones, but the Transiberian Railway keeps Moscow time all the way to the Pacific.

You're close ;) .Russia has 11 time zones. I think we in the "west" forget how Immense a country Russia is.
Drifting OT (in the OT forum), I worked with a Soviet emirege. He told me one time, as a patriotic Soviet, he took a trip on the Trans-Siberain.
"The first Day out of Moscow, I see nothing but trees. Second day, same thing. Third day, I decide Soviet Union will never run out of lumber:rolleyes: "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zones_of_Russia

[silver]

Time Zones.......any Indiana residents reading?

Indiana is one of those states that has mixed time zones. its' actaully gotten a little better in the last year. Most of the state isx in the Eastern time zone. Except for five counties in SW In and 5 in NwIN. Prior to this last year, most of the eastern time zone did not observe Daylight savings time. So half the year, the state was the same and the other half it was different.

However, now the entire state goes by daylight savings time. Now some counties are petitioning to change from Eastern to Central.

I once went to a marathon that was about 1.5 hours from my home. It was on the weekend that the time changed for daylight savings time in the Spring. But it was in the Eastern time zone. I live in the Central time zone. I had to look up the time on a special site that the state has to figure time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Indiana

Mr. works two hours NNE of here. he's on Eastern and we're on Central. He has to convert every weekend.

Many people live in one time zone and work in another.

Another time zone tidbit: We used to live in memphis. Memphis is the hub of FEDEX. FEDEX has to coordinate all it's shipments around the world. The pilots there refer to Time at their headquarters (memphis or Central time zone) as "Elvis Time"

[Mr. Bloom]

what happens if you live and go to school on one side of a time zone and the other side is your work. which time zone do you follow?

This is very common in Indiana. I live in two different time zones between our two homes. Weekdays, I live and work in Eastern; weekends in central. I keep my watches, car clocks, and biological clock in eastern which means that I often fall asleep very early on the weekends.

Let's not forget, time is a man-made creation. Our reference points (the earth's rotation and solar orbit) don't change. It's inconvenient to straddle the line, but not the end of the world.

[Mr. Bloom]

Hey Silv...funny we were responding at the same time but in two different time zones!!

[crazycanuck]

K..whilst driving to melbourne last christmas we weren't aware that approximately half way into Western Australia there's a time change of 45 min. Then another time change when we hit the border with South Australia.

I still have no idea why..but then again this is Western Australia & a lot of things just don't make sense here..

Now if didn't have to stay up until midnight during the week to call my mom all would be cool.

Lovely time zones.

c

[CycleChic06]

Another time zone tidbit: We used to live in memphis. Memphis is the hub of FEDEX. FEDEX has to coordinate all it's shipments around the world. The pilots there refer to Time at their headquarters (memphis or Central time zone) as "Elvis Time"

Hee hee, that just keeps making me laugh...

[Trekhawk]

K..whilst driving to melbourne last christmas we weren't aware that approximately half way into Western Australia there's a time change of 45 min.
c

A lot of people dont know about this because its an unofficial time zone.

Read about it here under the Trivia heading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone

I have travelled from Western Australia to the East coast and back more times than I care to remember and never worried about this time change, just changed when we got to the border.

When we travelled to the USA it was Xmas Eve when we left and Xmas Eve when we arrived. Poor kids had two Xmas Eves to wait through before Santa arrived.

[Duck on Wheels]

When we travelled to the USA it was Xmas Eve when we left and Xmas Eve when we arrived. Poor kids had two Xmas Eves to wait through before Santa arrived.

Ah, now this was when the kids wished they were Norwegian, right? In Norway Xmas eve is the big day -- big family dinner, then unwrap the gifts. If they'd been Norwegian kids on that trip they'd've demanded a double set of presents. :D