Amazing Facts About the Time Zones of Our Planet
Until the end of the 19th century, the world did not have a system of time zones. However, as the network of railroads and regular shipping lines expanded, the need to coordinate their schedules became evident. As a result, major trading nations began discussing the introduction of standard and zonal time in 1870 to eliminate the chaos surrounding this issue.
The culmination of these efforts was the Washington Meridian Conference of 1884, which divided the Earth into 24 standard meridians, spaced 15° apart in longitude, starting from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. The meridian at 180° (12 hours ahead of Greenwich) became the basis for the so-called International Date Line, where countries to the west of it entered the next day, while countries to the east remained in the previous day.
The East is a delicate matter.
There is a half-hour difference between Iran and Iraq, half an hour between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia are in the Oman time zone, rather than the more logical Saudi Arabian zone...
The only continent without half-hour time zones is Africa. Well, Antarctica too, but it doesn't count.
On it, all stations operate on the time of the country that sent them.
Three and a half hours in one step
At the Afghanistan-China border, the time zones are so different that a traveler crossing it must set their clock forward by 3.5 hours! Nowhere else in the world is there such a huge time difference in just one step!
China is one of the longest countries in the world: 5700 km from west to east.
Before the revolution of 1949, the country was divided into five time zones. But the Great Helmsman decided that this smacked of separatism and introduced a unified time across the vast country – Beijing time. Therefore, for example, in Tibet, sunsets are "delayed" by five hours: the sun sets at midnight.
The Land of the Rising Sun
It is believed that the Japanese are the first on Earth to greet the dawn of a new day – which is why Japan is called the Land of the Rising Sun. And this is completely wrong. In the city of Vladivostok (Russian Primorye), morning by Greenwich time arrives an hour earlier than in Tokyo.
Winding Time
The Himalayan mountain range is rightly considered a mystical place. This view is held not only by enlightened sages and philosophers but also by ordinary geographers. The Himalayas cross several countries with different times. As a result, a traveler deciding to traverse all 1000 km of this range will have to adjust their clock six times:
forward by 15 minutes when crossing the border from India to Nepal;
back by the same number of minutes when crossing the border from Nepal to India;
forward by two and a half hours when crossing the border from India to China;
back by two hours when crossing the border from China to Bhutan;
back by thirty minutes when crossing the border from Bhutan to India;
forward by an hour when crossing the border from India to Myanmar.
International Date Line (IDL)
Not many know that there is a so-called International Date Line, which runs exactly along the 180th meridian in the Pacific Ocean. When crossing this time zone line from west to east, one must set the clock back exactly 24 hours. If your direction of travel is the opposite, you will lose one day – the clock must be set forward by 24 hours.
"The present" here is ephemeral, unlike anywhere else on the planet.
The Diomede Islands (Russia) and Krusenstern (USA)
In the Bering Strait, halfway between Chukotka and Alaska, lie the Diomede Islands. Big Diomede (or Ratmanov Island) belongs to Russia, while Little Diomede (or Krusenstern Island) belongs to the USA. Between the islands runs not only a national border but also the International Date Line. On a regular motorboat, this distance can be covered in 15-20 minutes. By Greenwich time, the islands are separated by exactly 21 hours: if it is noon Thursday on Ratmanov Island, it is three o'clock Wednesday on Krusenstern Island. Thus, soldiers at the outpost on Big Island can celebrate the New Year, then walk 4 km to Little Island and celebrate it again, especially since this can be done without any visa due to a special agreement between the countries.
Upside Down from England
India was for a long time the most important British colony and was considered the jewel of the imperial crown of conquests. After its liberation, India chose a 5.5-hour difference from Greenwich, so if you turn the clock upside down, you can find out the exact London time!!! The British know: "If you are in England, turn your clock upside down – you will see what time it is in India."
The Meeting of Three Time Zones
Usually, there is a significant distance between time zones on Earth, however, in the small village of Rayakoski, three such zones converge. It is located at the border of three countries – Norway, Finland, and Russia. Each country lives by its own time, and when Russians sit down for lunch at noon, it is only eleven o'clock for the Finns, and even less for the Norwegians – ten.
Nepal.
A small but proud country has long tried to separate itself from India, which surrounds it on three sides.
To emphasize its independence, Nepal first "separated" from its formidable neighbor by adjusting the time: the clock was set 10 minutes ahead. But this seemed insufficient, and in 1986 the arrogant Nepalese monarchy distanced itself from India by another 5 minutes.
Universal Time at the North and South Poles
At the North and South Poles, all meridians converge at a point, and they cannot be attributed to any time zone.
Therefore, it is generally accepted that universal time (Greenwich time) operates there. However, at the American Antarctic station Amundsen-Scott, located exactly at the South Pole, New Zealand time is used, as flights to the station are made from there.
Traveling within Australia is also not easy
This continent has three time zones. When it is eight o'clock in the morning in the left part of Australia, it is not nine o'clock in the central part, but 9:30. And in the right part, it is exactly ten in the morning. As the famous joke goes, "This is impossible to understand; it can only be memorized." The 15-minute difference in Nepal at least has a political meaning, while Australia is still a unified country.
Venezuela and Buenos Aires - two exceptions on the South American continent
Venezuela is the only country with a "half" time zone on the continent. When it is four o'clock in the afternoon in Brazil and five in Colombia, it is 4:30 in Venezuela. The reason is the same as with Nepal, emphasizing political independence.
And the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, is the only capital in the world whose time differs from the time of the rest of the country. In Argentina, it is three o'clock in the morning, while in the capital it is already four in the morning. I can't say which is less logical, this or the time zones of Australia.
Due to the division of the world into time zones, New Year is celebrated at different times in different parts of the planet. The first to throw out old calendars are those in Kiribati, the Line Islands, and Christmas Island, which are in the UTC+14 time zone. Meanwhile, two remote islands in the Pacific Ocean, Baker and Howland, are located in the UTC-12 time zone and are the last to celebrate the New Year. Thus, when it is 11 PM on December 31 on Baker and Howland Islands, it will already be 1 AM on January 2 on Christmas Island.
What do you think is the maximum time difference between two time zones on our planet?
It is logical to assume that the time difference between the westernmost time zone from Greenwich and the easternmost is 24 hours. However, in addition to the UTC +12 zone, there are also UTC +13 (in the Kingdom of Tonga) and UTC +14 (on the Line Islands), making this difference equal to 26 hours! A paradoxical situation has arisen: the Line Islands are located 10-20° east of Samoa, but the time difference between them is 25 hours.
The International Earth Rotation Service (yes, you read that right, it exists) adds one second to June 30 or December 31 in some leap years. So at this time, the clock shows 23:59:60 and then 00:00:00.
In addition to time zones, there is also a certain tradition of adjusting the time forward or backward by one hour depending on the season. In summer, it is customary to set the clock forward by one hour, and in winter, back by one hour. Daylight saving time was introduced to move the clock forward by one hour since the daylight hours increased, allowing people to save on lighting, for example.
On the International Space Station, the so-called Coordinated Universal Time is used – the time by which all existing services of all countries on Earth should synchronize their clocks, and all inhabitants of our planet too. In practical terms, this is almost analogous to Greenwich time (which some time ago ceased to be the standard due to inaccuracies caused by the uneven rotation of the Earth and the Greenwich meridian along with it). So, Greenwich is approximately in the middle between Houston, from where the American module of the ISS is managed, and Korolev, where our base is located. So in space, they live as in England. Although the time on the ISS is, of course, conditional. For example, astronauts experience sunrises and sunsets much more frequently than in the Foggy Albion, so the station artificially creates darkness during the earthly evening to create the illusion of night.