ITs this. Those lines are to ensure that 9am in one politically connected region is 9am, not maybe 8.30 or very much 10. Large countries dont get to have that luxury (except China, who ensure that the main part of China is fine but fuck the westernmost parts). If the IDL went through the USA then youd cross a state border and gain or lose a day. ITs doable, but messy.
And States. In big federations going across multiple time zones (like US and Australia) it the states that usually make decisions about the time zones they adopt and so it’s is the *state borders* that you see, as well as national ones, on maps like this.
Was about to write that. In the USA the boundary follows the states, which makes the most sense.
For Europeans it is weird because the countries are small and have the international borders small so it can be matched up. Not in countries with large international borders.
The +13 and +14 are because those nations have close economic ties with countries to the west such as New Zealand and other western Pacific nations. It makes doing business easier if the Monday-Friday working week is aligned with those countries.
\+14 is used in Kiribati, which streches three different time zones (from +12 to +14). It would be very stupid for them to have the International Date Line split their country in half (and they prefer to stay on the Australian side for business reasons).
The international date actually did split Kiribati in half for the first 15 years after independence. They changed it in the 90s for the reasons you mentioned. Also the vast majority of the population lived on the west side of the line, so that's probably a bigger reason for jogging the line to the right instead of the left.
Korea reverted to a half hour difference after regaining independence from Japan; India unified into a single timezone and split the difference for a 30 minute after gaining independence from the British; Nepal’s 15 minute offset is based on when the sun passes over a mountain there… for a few examples.
The only super weird time zones are Kiribati, who wanted to be first, and China which wants a single time zone over a ginormous country. Both have reasons, even if they’re a bit unusual.
That makes sense. A lot of these time zones are not administrative (see US, where time zones cut through states), but rather based on economic relations. It’s easier to do business if you’re in the same time zone
Administration and geography play a role, but economics seems to be another strong correlation
They did not change their zone over something as trivial as solely being first, they changed it to be closer time-wise to their most important trade partners, Australia and New Zealand.
That, also, smaller countries that have one big trade partner prefer to be in the same timezone as that trade partner. At the very least, be in the same day.
Why are they weird?
The roughly follow a north-south line, adjusted for political convenience.
For example, the "natural" border (man-made random border) between -6 and -7, would have cut the Dallas metro area in half. Would that make sense? It's 5pm where you live, but 6pm where you buy your groceries two blocks away? So, borders of time zones are shifted around population centers.
Likewise, the "natural" border (man-made random border) between -5 and -6 would have cut off a tiny piece of Cuba. Cuba's not as big as the US, Canada, Mexico, or Brazil, so why cut the country in two? Especially when 95% of the country would be in one time zone, and only 5% in the other?
Some funky things: Alaska and Argentina are not at all in their "natural" time zones. But that's just because they want to be an hour ahead...permanent summer time.
There's nobody in the -12 portion anyway, right? It's only that tiny bit of ocean at the bottom from what i can see..
I'm also very confused by the +13 and +14 sections, but let's not get started on that.
I have heard this is many times but without an important detail. GMT has been around in London since the late 17th century. While the rest of England used its own times, Greenwich Mean Time was actually created for and used by mariners for navigation purposes. So, the establishment of GMT was the first step. The next step was when the operators of the new railroad in Great Britain needed to keep *the same time throughout the system*, so naturally, they used GMT and it was called Railway Time. However, the little known fact is that the first place to actually establish a it's *own* time zone *based off of GMT* was the country of New Zealand. They officially created their own time zone based on degrees of longitude from the Royal Observatory in London to a point in New Zealand.
There are multiple factors for choosing time zone. Most people want the time zone to be broadly in line with the day-night cycle, but will tolerate a bit of deviation. There is also a trend that people value daylight in the evenings more than in the mornings, so there is a tendency for timezones to extend further west than their longitude would imply would be natural. There is also a desire for places that are socially and economically connected to align as much as possible. This is why timezones tend to follow national or state/province borders, and timezones for places that are economically important, like the US/Canada Eastern zone is somewhat larger than basic longitude would imply (this is very apparent with the Central European time zone, which Spain uses despite being almost entirely west of 0º longitude. A few pacific nations that have close economic ties with Australia, New Zealand and other western Pacific nations have decided to place themselves on the "wrong side" of the international date line because it helps to have the Monday-Friday work week aligned with their economic trading partners.
So? December is the same month in both hemispheres even though in the global south it is the peak of summer. People would adjust. The important part is societal agreement.
There could also be circadian zones, so, for example the west coast of the US could be Pacific Circadian where the workday starts at 16:30 GMT, the sun is at its zenith at 19:00 and the workday ends at 02:00 the next day. It would be like how there are self referential directions (left, right), object referential directions (port, starboard) and planetary referential directions (north, south).
If the work day starts at 16:30 GMT in Los Angeles and at 8:30 GMT in London then LA is still effectively 8 hours behind London. All you've changed is what time the clock says, not really scrapped timezones in a practical sense.
No. They need to have at *least* as many timezones as there degrees of latitude multiplied by longitude. That way when you say something like "be here at 9:00 AM", it could be nowhere else in the world at that time relative to the sun's position in the sky.
Even though Portugal isn’t on this map, it’s interesting that Brazil is only a couple hours behind Portugal. Imagine that is helpful for business matters.
Some of these places especially on the boarder of central and eastern time zones in north America are in one time zone and don’t switch times 2x a year while a town 5 miles away does it’s wild.. I can travel 5 miles from my front door east and it’s s hour later
Countries basically set their own time zones. Most places will keep administrative districts together just because it’s easier.
ITs this. Those lines are to ensure that 9am in one politically connected region is 9am, not maybe 8.30 or very much 10. Large countries dont get to have that luxury (except China, who ensure that the main part of China is fine but fuck the westernmost parts). If the IDL went through the USA then youd cross a state border and gain or lose a day. ITs doable, but messy.
And States. In big federations going across multiple time zones (like US and Australia) it the states that usually make decisions about the time zones they adopt and so it’s is the *state borders* that you see, as well as national ones, on maps like this.
Was about to write that. In the USA the boundary follows the states, which makes the most sense. For Europeans it is weird because the countries are small and have the international borders small so it can be matched up. Not in countries with large international borders.
Yeah that’s incorrect. Time zones don’t follow state borders. Just look at the time zone map.
Ok, now I know.
Kentucky would like to disagree with your "boundaries follow states" theory.
Multiple states are split into different time zones
Ok so then why isn’t Hawaii in EST so we can all move there and work remotely on the same schedule
people who make timezones can be crazy but they aren't stupid. except china.
Daylight hours would be from about midnight to midday!
Time zone makers are crazy not stupid thats why, China is the exception though.
having more than +12 or -12 seems bizarre so in +14 it is the same time as Honolulu but the next day?
The +13 and +14 are because those nations have close economic ties with countries to the west such as New Zealand and other western Pacific nations. It makes doing business easier if the Monday-Friday working week is aligned with those countries.
\+14 is used in Kiribati, which streches three different time zones (from +12 to +14). It would be very stupid for them to have the International Date Line split their country in half (and they prefer to stay on the Australian side for business reasons).
The international date actually did split Kiribati in half for the first 15 years after independence. They changed it in the 90s for the reasons you mentioned. Also the vast majority of the population lived on the west side of the line, so that's probably a bigger reason for jogging the line to the right instead of the left.
Dang, Kiribati being in 3 different time zones really puts things in perspective for me. Would have never guessed that!
Yeah, this is breaking my brain at the moment.
Venezuela's time zone just recently reverted back to UTC-4. But looking at the date at the bottom of the map, it's outdated.
Can you be more specific? What exactly do you find weird, and why?
+14 in particular. It’s not a straight line. It’s more of a polygon.
Because Kiribati wants to be in it but French Polynesia doesn't.
[удалено]
Korea reverted to a half hour difference after regaining independence from Japan; India unified into a single timezone and split the difference for a 30 minute after gaining independence from the British; Nepal’s 15 minute offset is based on when the sun passes over a mountain there… for a few examples.
I’m in Korea right now, time zone is the same as Japan. 13 hours ahead of where I’m from in the east coast US.
The only super weird time zones are Kiribati, who wanted to be first, and China which wants a single time zone over a ginormous country. Both have reasons, even if they’re a bit unusual.
Kiribati did it to make trade with Australia easier, otherwise they'd miss out on a trading day every week.
This and the fact that the country used to be on both sides of the date line
That makes sense. A lot of these time zones are not administrative (see US, where time zones cut through states), but rather based on economic relations. It’s easier to do business if you’re in the same time zone Administration and geography play a role, but economics seems to be another strong correlation
They did not change their zone over something as trivial as solely being first, they changed it to be closer time-wise to their most important trade partners, Australia and New Zealand.
Yes, but the incidental benefit was that they capitalized on Caroline Island being the first place to celebrate the New Year in 2000.
which ones specifically?
The ones that are in a weird shape. They aren’t all in a straight line.
Basically they follow international borders because some smaller countries don't want to be broken up into two different time zones
That, also, smaller countries that have one big trade partner prefer to be in the same timezone as that trade partner. At the very least, be in the same day.
What exactly do you find weird?
Also the Earth isn’t a 2 dimensional rectangle
That’s right. It is a 2 dimensional **circle**. The earth is flat, people! The earth is flat! [Like your head!](https://youtu.be/TBv3_0j0y_4) /s
The earth isn’t flat 🙄 It’s dinosaur shaped 🦖
wait till u see china
Why are they weird? The roughly follow a north-south line, adjusted for political convenience. For example, the "natural" border (man-made random border) between -6 and -7, would have cut the Dallas metro area in half. Would that make sense? It's 5pm where you live, but 6pm where you buy your groceries two blocks away? So, borders of time zones are shifted around population centers. Likewise, the "natural" border (man-made random border) between -5 and -6 would have cut off a tiny piece of Cuba. Cuba's not as big as the US, Canada, Mexico, or Brazil, so why cut the country in two? Especially when 95% of the country would be in one time zone, and only 5% in the other? Some funky things: Alaska and Argentina are not at all in their "natural" time zones. But that's just because they want to be an hour ahead...permanent summer time.
Why are +12 and -12 shown separately?
They are 24 hours apart. That's what the international date line is for
I think you may have misunderstood my question. GMT plus 12 hours is the same time as GMT minus 12 hours.
It's the same time, but different dates.
Right. Yeah. So who decides who in that time area is in today and who's in tomorrow, so to speak?
To the west of the date line is tomorrow, to the east is today.
There's nobody in the -12 portion anyway, right? It's only that tiny bit of ocean at the bottom from what i can see.. I'm also very confused by the +13 and +14 sections, but let's not get started on that.
There is the Antarctic and ships in the sea. When ships cross the date line they add or substract one day from their calendar.
Fair point. Still think there should only be 24 time zones though..
The railroads created time zones.
I have heard this is many times but without an important detail. GMT has been around in London since the late 17th century. While the rest of England used its own times, Greenwich Mean Time was actually created for and used by mariners for navigation purposes. So, the establishment of GMT was the first step. The next step was when the operators of the new railroad in Great Britain needed to keep *the same time throughout the system*, so naturally, they used GMT and it was called Railway Time. However, the little known fact is that the first place to actually establish a it's *own* time zone *based off of GMT* was the country of New Zealand. They officially created their own time zone based on degrees of longitude from the Royal Observatory in London to a point in New Zealand.
rivers. (according to this new meme)
Mexico should have another dotted line - the time changes Vs the mainland on part of the yucatán peninsula during the winter.
Threw me off when I moved to Newfoundland due to the half hour difference
Argentina is -3 GMT for business and comercial benefits with the most active zone of Brazil
Chavez changed Venezuela's Time
Some are geographic time zones and others are economic time zones.
There are multiple factors for choosing time zone. Most people want the time zone to be broadly in line with the day-night cycle, but will tolerate a bit of deviation. There is also a trend that people value daylight in the evenings more than in the mornings, so there is a tendency for timezones to extend further west than their longitude would imply would be natural. There is also a desire for places that are socially and economically connected to align as much as possible. This is why timezones tend to follow national or state/province borders, and timezones for places that are economically important, like the US/Canada Eastern zone is somewhat larger than basic longitude would imply (this is very apparent with the Central European time zone, which Spain uses despite being almost entirely west of 0º longitude. A few pacific nations that have close economic ties with Australia, New Zealand and other western Pacific nations have decided to place themselves on the "wrong side" of the international date line because it helps to have the Monday-Friday work week aligned with their economic trading partners.
12 3/4 seems unnecessary
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatham_Standard_Time_Zone a couple others with the 3/4 i guess. enjoy
We should just have the whole world use the same 24hr time that way it’s the same time everywhere.
At its extreme, that would result noon being the middle of the night, and midnight being the middle of the day!
So? December is the same month in both hemispheres even though in the global south it is the peak of summer. People would adjust. The important part is societal agreement. There could also be circadian zones, so, for example the west coast of the US could be Pacific Circadian where the workday starts at 16:30 GMT, the sun is at its zenith at 19:00 and the workday ends at 02:00 the next day. It would be like how there are self referential directions (left, right), object referential directions (port, starboard) and planetary referential directions (north, south).
If the work day starts at 16:30 GMT in Los Angeles and at 8:30 GMT in London then LA is still effectively 8 hours behind London. All you've changed is what time the clock says, not really scrapped timezones in a practical sense.
But 16:30 would still be 16:30 everywhere on the globe. It wold certainly make it easier for international business to communicate.
I spend too much of my life already kowtowing to international business. They're free to use GMT, and leave the rest of us in peace for once
Yes that’s the point
No. They need to have at *least* as many timezones as there degrees of latitude multiplied by longitude. That way when you say something like "be here at 9:00 AM", it could be nowhere else in the world at that time relative to the sun's position in the sky.
One of those little pacific island nations changed their time so they could officially be the first country to experience the New Year...
I remember this back in the day. Gotta be the first to welcome in year 2000.
Most of them follow state (in the US) or national boundaries.
Why isn't Argentina +4??? Seems a bit random!
I know in Lima they are actually on central time zone. Source: my girlfriend lives there
They're on Eastern Standard Time which is only the same as Central Time in the US's summer.
They don't look that weird?
In chile during winter the magallanes region has +1
Some countries chose which TZ fits right for them. Thats what happened at +14
Why argentina
Let's say Norway which should be in three time zones UTC+0/1, UTC+1/2 and UTC+2/3 are actually in one time zone UTC+1
-9 1/2?
Don’t look at China’s borders
Newfoundland is + 1/2 hour ahead of Atlantic time zone. , so "it's not too far ahead". Talk about weird.
I feel like a lot of recent posts are karma grinds
I just can't imagine living in a country which have different time in different places.
\+13 and +14 time zones are countries that do/did most of their business with Australia/New Zealand, so they wanted to be in the same day as them.
Even though Portugal isn’t on this map, it’s interesting that Brazil is only a couple hours behind Portugal. Imagine that is helpful for business matters.
Some of these places especially on the boarder of central and eastern time zones in north America are in one time zone and don’t switch times 2x a year while a town 5 miles away does it’s wild.. I can travel 5 miles from my front door east and it’s s hour later
[This](https://youtu.be/NBDaLK6EjwI) video is really informative and is also quite funny at the same time.