When you wake up at 7 am, I would be in the middle of my afternoon (4 pm). So how do time zones work across the world? For example, if you live in San Francisco (GMT - 7) and I live in Germany (GMT + 2), we have 9 hours difference. Therefore, today we experience more zones than the standard 24. Other countries also adopted different systems that modify the time zones by smaller increments (e.g., 15 or 30 minutes). However, some countries (e.g., China) did not accept the standard time, and instead, they preferred to set their own time. For example, moving 15 degrees to the west from Greenwich would shift into one hour earlier, whereas moving to the east an hour later. Hence, this reference time at Greenwich is called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The primary line is called the prime meridian, and this longitude dividing line is the angular distance between the prime meridian at Greenwich and any other meridian points. What is Greenwich? The imaginary lines dividing these zones begin at Greenwich (a suburb of London). WIRED UK YouTube Channel It's AumSum Time YouTube Channel Twig Education YouTube Channel In addition, the equator is 24,902 miles long, and the distance between zones at the equator is 1,038 miles (approximately). Moreover, at the equator level, the distance between zones is the greatest, which gets shorter at the pole locations due to the planet's curvature. Based on this concept, the Earth was divided into 24 time zones, and each would be 15 degrees of longitude wide. Thus, after 24 hours (one day), it completes a full rotation of 360 degrees. While rotating around its axis, every 60 minutes, the Earth moves about 15 degrees. Indeed, when people started to travel across North America by train, train stations had to match 75 time zones! Thus, to solve this problem, in the late 1800s, scientists proposed the “standard time,” and by studying the movement of the Earth, they created a zone map of the world. Living in time zones is certainly not a new topic, but compared to centuries ago, today, in a fully connected world, this fact becomes more complicated and needs organization. Otherwise, a specific time (e.g., noon) would be in the middle of the day in some locations, but it might also be early morning or night in others. Therefore, time zones are needed to enter and exit daylight at different times. For example, as your location on Earth rotates into the sunlight, you see the sunrise, whereas, in a rotation out of sunlight, you would see the sunset. During this movement, day and night are defined. However, during this rotation, some parts of the Earth will be exposed to light while others to darkness. Our planet Earth has the shape of a sphere that spins on an imaginary pole (axis), and every 24 hours, it makes a complete rotation around it. So, if you are a curious explorer like I am, hang on and read this.Ī good way to understand time zones is to start with the question, “How long does it take the Earth to make one full rotation on its axis? And while doing so, the best way was to write an article about it. These were curious questions about time that I needed to answer. Therefore, I started questioning how time zones work across the world, why this event happens, and what the effects are on human life and habits.įurthermore, based on my regular experience having Zoom meetings with the USA, I was thinking, “do people in the USA age later than people in the EU?” and “When I text or call a USA colleague, am I doing it in the future?” “Are they living in the present or still in the past?” San Francisco is 9 hours backward compared to Germany. The display indicated the local time of the departure city and the current time of the arrival city. By looking at the display located right in front of my face. Therefore, I had enough time to think about what would have been an excellent topic to discuss and write about on the flight. It is my third time in the USA, for the same reason, and if you think it is a long trip from Germany, where I currently work. Recently, I traveled to San Francisco (CA, USA) because I had the opportunity to present my research work at the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. As a scientist, I frequently happen to have digital worldwide research collaborations or be invited to global conferences and events.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |