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Time Zones

Posted:
Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:24 pm
by expat
I was using the web to check on a couple of time zones. In general, the zones are separated by whole hours, except Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar and parts of Australia. These countries have (from CET) 2 1/2 hour time difference, except Oz of course, but it also has hours plus 1/2 time zones.
Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar are all surrounded by countries that have whole hour time zone differences, so why 1/2 hour differences with these countries. Half and hour does not seem to be worth it, when you consider that we change once a year a whole hour and have daylight added or taken away from us. Half and hour would not make that much difference I would have thought.
Matt
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:54 pm
by H
[color=#003300]That's just the way some do things -- if you check their stable, only
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:29 am
by Fozzer
[quote][color=#003300]That's just the way some do things -- if you check their stable, only
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:44 am
by expat
[quote][quote][color=#003300]That's just the way some do things -- if you check their stable, only
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:47 am
by Hagar
All you ever wanted to know about time zones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:53 am
by Fozzer
[quote][quote][quote][color=#003300]That's just the way some do things -- if you check their stable, only
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:33 am
by TSC.
It is about time the UK got with the program, even France stretches West as far as the Irish Sea.
Matt
It's GMT Matt, which means we're right.
Our Game, our rules, we win.

TSC.
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:39 am
by Fozzer
It is about time the UK got with the program, even France stretches West as far as the Irish Sea.
Matt
It's GMT Matt, which means we're right.
Our Game, our rules, we win.

TSC.
...

...!
Greenwich Mean Time, and the English Language...
We own both of them... [smiley=thumbsup.gif]...!
Paul....

...!
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:39 am
by Hagar
It is about time the UK got with the program, even France stretches West as far as the Irish Sea.
Matt
It's GMT Matt, which means we're right.
Our Game, our rules, we win.

TSC.
Precisely. [smiley=thumbsup.gif] It's all the others that got it wrong.

Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:31 am
by MWISimmer
Wasn't there mention recently of the UK adopting European time? Not changing the clocks back in October then going forward in Spring?
This would mean that winter would be at GMT+1, and summer at GMT+2.
Imagine in late June/early July it not getting dark until 11.30pm. :o
That would take some getting used to...
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:47 am
by Hagar
Wasn't there mention recently of the UK adopting European time? Not changing the clocks back in October then going forward in Spring?
This would mean that winter would be at GMT+1, and summer at GMT+2.
Imagine in late June/early July it not getting dark until 11.30pm. :o
That would take some getting used to...
It's worse in the depths of winter. People are always campaigning to change things. They either conveniently forget or are completely unaware that it's all been tried before. When they tried this 'brilliant' idea between 1968 and 1971 it was so unpopular that it was changed back again. What a waste of time that was.

(Pun intended

)
I used to deal with customers all over the world & never had a problem with different time zones. With modern communication methods like E-mail it should be even easier now.
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:33 am
by commoner
...didn't we (UK) have different times in various parts of the country in the 19th C?........GMT was made the British official time (legally)in 1880. 'Fore that there was something known as railway time but not sure just how that worked...........commoner :-/
Remember Tick-a-tick-a-Timex ?.......my first accurate(?) digital watch...Still got mine

Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:27 am
by born_2_fly
I've always wanted to know when timezones where actually 'discovered'.
Where they known about BEFORE the earth was widely acknowledged to be spherical?
To me it seems improbable that they would, going long distances on ships was such a slow process people must have adjusted to the timezones 'slowly' not even realising that they were. Just think going from London to New York on a sailboat, by the time they got there they must have adjusted to the local time, and not realised any difference?
Hmm ::)
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:04 pm
by H
Just think going from London to New York on a sailboat, by the time they got there they must have adjusted to the local time, and not realised any difference?
What adjusting? They were in the dark about the place when they left and they're still in the dark.
I set my timepieces for spring/summer. Unless they lose power, I rarely reset them; during latter autumn and the winter I'm an hour ahead of most everyone else in the EST zone without ever treading into the Atlantic.8-)
Re: Time Zones

Posted:
Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:16 pm
by Hagar
I've always wanted to know when timezones where actually 'discovered'.
Where they known about BEFORE the earth was widely acknowledged to be spherical?
They weren't discovered. Time is a man-made concept invented for our own convenience - or inconvenience as the case might be.
The idea of time zones is comparatively recent. Copied from the link I posted earlier: [quote]History
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was established in 1675 when the Royal Observatory was built, as an aid to determine longitude at sea by mariners.
The first time zone in the world was established by British railways on December 1, 1847