Time Zone Boundaries Without Political

Factual Questions
1

Was just wondering what the actual boundaries of the time zones would be if we didn’t take political boundaries into effect

I can’t find a map on the internet with line of longitude but maybe someone can help.

What I was thinking was this

There are 24 time zones. The earth is 360 degress. 360/24=15. So that means that each time zone should take up 15 degrees.

Thus if the prime meridian is Greenwich, UK, than that time zone should extend 7.5 miles on either side of Greenwhich.

So continuing that logic, where would the middle boundaries of the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones occur.

I am trying to figure out how far the time zone boundaries were pushed aside due to political considerations

2

If you look at this map, it has the ideal 15 degree divisions at the top, and lines going down showing the center of each zone. Looks like the centers for the US time zones would more or less be New York, Chicago, Denver, and LA.

3

If you have Google Earth loaded, you can turn on Latitude and Longitude grid from the View drop-down. Simply find the Longitude 7 1/2° east and west of the 15° lines and compare them to the link cckerberos provided. (As an example, in Michigan only Port Huron (from a few hundred yards west of the I-94/I-69 intersection) and the small towns as far south as Marine City are in the Eastern Time Zone. The auto industry felt the need to synchronize with the financial center in New York City rather than the smaller agricultural financial center in Chicago and dragged the state to the East. I am not sure what interests moved Indiana to the Eastern Zone; Indianapolis has much stronger ties with Chicago than with Cincinatti, Columbus, Detroit, or New York. Cincinatti, Dayton, and Toledo were simply dragged in by Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, and Youngstown.)

4

7.5 miles? That would put the radius of the Earth at 15 X 24 = 360 miles.

5

I’m guessing he meant 7.5 degrees.

6

Yes my bad, I meant 7.5 degrees

I have heard tell Detroit had itself moved for exactly the reason stated. I also read that a lot of places near the boundaries edges go ahead an hour to capitalize on the sunlight