# The edges of time zones **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 30, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462 "2005-06-30T02:57:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/21 "2005-07-01T05:16:02Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > **AskNott** , > According to some friends in Indiana, the option of the various counties around the major cities staying tied to them the way they are now is not possible, it is all or nothing. OTOH, my friends are not always right about political things. It would be nice if I could tell you that I’m right and your other friends are wrong. I can’t do that. I don’t know how that skirmish came out, and your other Indiana friends may well be right about the all-or-nothing part. We’ll know for sure in the fall. It’s simply amazing that they finally went to DST after all that time, and it’s amazing that it took that long. There’s been a rural-to-urban shift of power. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/22 "2005-07-01T05:20:24Z")
> [@Lok](#): > > Actually, Union City straddles the Ohio-Indiana border. There are usually stories done about it everytime DST starts up. I know of an Ohio City, Ohio, but I don’t know of an Ohio City, Indiana. You are absolutely right. I was thinking of UNION City. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/23 "2005-07-01T06:25:41Z")
I worked at a newspaper for a while which covered both Illinois and Indiana. I worked in the sports department and we covered 10 or 12 Illinois high schools and 5 or 6 in Indiana. We just printed everthing in Central time (with reminders on occasion…“All times Central” or whatever). ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/24 "2005-07-01T06:54:59Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > I worked at a newspaper for a while which covered both Illinois and Indiana. I worked in the sports department and we covered 10 or 12 Illinois high schools and 5 or 6 in Indiana. We just printed everthing in Central time (with reminders on occasion…“All times Central” or whatever). I can understand this for TV listings and the like. But was it a lot of work to convert the local movie theater’s schedule from Eastern to Central, or verify that you had properly recorded when the East Soyfield booster club meeting was to begin? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/25 "2005-07-01T07:08:21Z")
It wasn’t a lot of work, really…the main problem was communication within the newsroom. If I knew that something started at 7 p.m. Indiana time, I would have to make sure I communicated the “Indiana time” part of it when moving it through the newsroom. Other than that, the only problem was figuring out how much we should mention that it was a different time within the newspaper, so as to adequately inform yet not become repetitive (as I said, in the sports department, we dealt with that by reporting 99% of our times as Central, no matter where the game took place). ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/26 "2005-07-01T15:40:12Z")
OT: Is there any spot on earth that intersects 3 time zones? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/27 "2005-07-01T15:42:54Z")
> [@](#): > > OT: Is there any spot on earth that intersects 3 time zones? > Today 03:08 AM If by that do you mean “Are there any places where three time zonmes meet?” then the answer is “sure”. Look at the map I linked to earlier, and you’ll find lots of places. Two of them are up at the top in Siberia: [http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/world\_tzones.html](http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/world_tzones.html) ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/28 "2005-07-01T17:06:01Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > OT: Is there any spot on earth that intersects 3 time zones? At the poles all 24 zones intersect. ---
**Author:** ![cruel\_butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@cruel\_butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cruel_butterfly)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/29 "2005-07-01T18:27:10Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > At the poles all 24 zones intersect. so what time is is at the north or south poles? ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/30 "2005-07-01T20:32:39Z")
> [@cruel butterfly](#): > > so what time is is at the north or south poles? IIRC, the time zone used at the South Pole scientific base is GMT, with no Daylight Saving applied. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/31 "2005-07-02T02:22:53Z")
There are still a couple of oddities in western Canada. On the maps [here](http://inms-ienm.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/time_services/daylight_saving_e.html), you can see that the SE corner of British Columbia is on Mountain Time instead of Pacific. The Standard Time map also shows a notch in the Saskatchewan-Alberta border where a town chose to stay on Mountain Time. It’s not as bad as it used to be - up to the 50s there were quite a few towns that did the same because they were nearer to large places in Alberta than to anywhere in SK. The time-zone map had little strips cut out all along the border. (I couldn’t find one on line.) ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/32 "2005-07-03T21:21:06Z")
My father was a traveling salesman, who traveled 9 states. In the summer, I would occasionally accompany him on trips, during the summer. I remember being in Nashville and he was on a telephone at one customer talking to another customer. Both customers were going to supper with us and a big deal was made about what time to meet. As we drove to our room to freshen up, he explained how Nashville was split by the time zone. Back then (the1950’s) they just considered it a minor inconvenience. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/33 "2005-07-04T03:44:15Z")
I have been told that somewhere in Arizona, which generally does not use DST, there is an Indian reservation whose inhabitants DO use it. But that somewhere within that large area there is a subgroup who does not. Or else the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/34 "2005-07-04T06:48:46Z")
The Navajo reservation in Arizona uses DST. The Hopi reservation, inside the Navajo reservation, does not. Lok ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/35 "2005-07-04T11:56:02Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > IIRC, the time zone used at the South Pole scientific base is GMT, with no Daylight Saving applied. Actually New Zealand time for convenience, since the base’s communications and supplies run through there. The former Soviet base there used Moscow time. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/36 "2005-07-04T13:57:04Z")
Although it’s common (or so it seems to me) to say that a paticular town or city straddles a state or provincial line, I’m fairly certain that’s not the case. The so-called “straddling” town is really two towns: one in one state and another in the other. Each of these two towns has their own municipal government, chartered under the state in which it’s located. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/37 "2005-07-04T14:03:44Z")
BTW, there are more than 24 time zones. There are certain zones which are set on the 1/2 hour (India) and one of the “on the hour” zones is split into two itself, bisected by the International Date Line. Here’s a fun site for finding and converting times. ---
**Author:** ![habs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@habs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/habs)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462/38 "2005-07-04T23:51:23Z")
If you visit the Hoover Dam, you can [walk from the Mountain Standard Time Zone right into the Pacific Standard Time Zone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DamTimeZones.jpg), and vice versa. They even have two clocks on each end of the dam displaying the time in the respective time zones! 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-edges-of-time-zones/310462.md?page=1)