# Time Zone ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 25, 2013, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533 "2013-07-25T23:03:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tonyfop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85f322/32.png) [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/21 "2013-07-27T01:58:14Z")
When I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, we lived on GMT, called Zulu time in the military. (Each time zone is assigned a letter, and it is referred to by its phonetic name.) This was a base run by the Air Force. Since it is my only data point of an base in a war zone, I don’t know if that is standard in the Air Force. In the Navy, we just changed all of the clocks on the ship as we traversed each time zone, although operationally, we also used Zulu time. It was really confusing that all of the base services were in Zulu time, but local time is Z +4:30. So lunch was at 1200 local, which was 0730 Zulu time. It was really confusing in the beginning, but we got used to it. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/22 "2013-07-27T09:39:36Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > A universal time scheme starts to fall apart if you were to use it for the entire globe though. It’s not really a big deal to start waking up at “3am” and eat lunch at “9am”. It is a big deal to have it change from Monday to Tuesday in the middle of the work day. You’d get used to that too. Lots of people have the day change in the middle of a work period without it being a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/23 "2013-07-27T09:42:22Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > But back to the OP, I don’t think that a universal time zone would work. We just aren’t accustomed to the sun setting at 1pm, for example. The locals would want to change that. The sun doesn’t set at the same time more than twice a year (and not even that often if you want to be nitpicky about it), and lots of people live in places where it does set at 1pm sometimes. This is not a “would not work” argument against universal time. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/24 "2013-07-27T13:34:59Z")
> [@naita](#): > > The sun doesn’t set at the same time more than twice a year (and not even that often if you want to be nitpicky about it), and lots of people live in places where it does set at 1pm sometimes. This is not a “would not work” argument against universal time. I’ll admit that I’m not familiar with Arctic cultures and crazy time zones. If the sun set around here at 1pm, the legislature would say to hell with all of this, and 1pm is now 7pm (or something similar). And would there be an all powerful world government that would tell us that we must call 7pm 1pm? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/25 "2013-07-27T13:41:21Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Exactly. No surprise then that a Canadian invented standard time. After he missed a train in Ireland! ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/26 "2013-07-28T03:38:36Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I’ll admit that I’m not familiar with Arctic cultures and crazy time zones. If the sun set around here at 1pm, the legislature would say to hell with all of this, and 1pm is now 7pm (or something similar). And would there be an all powerful world government that would tell us that we must call 7pm 1pm? The problem is not legal or governmental, but physical and geographical: If you’re so far north that sunset is at 1 pm, then sunrise will be around 11 am. Adding 6 hours to that won’t make anything better, and would probably make it all worse. ---
**Author:** ![Bremidon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@Bremidon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bremidon)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/27 "2013-07-28T07:31:13Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > The problem is not legal or governmental, but physical and geographical: If you’re so far north that sunset is at 1 pm, then sunrise will be around 11 am. Adding 6 hours to that won’t make anything better, and would probably make it all worse. I call Woosh. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/28 "2013-07-28T15:50:10Z")
[**Sunrise, sunset**](http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=1165&month=12&year=2012&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1) times in December 2012 at Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/29 "2013-07-28T22:38:02Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I’ll admit that I’m not familiar with Arctic cultures and crazy time zones. If the sun set around here at 1pm, the legislature would say to hell with all of this, and 1pm is now 7pm (or something similar). And would there be an all powerful world government that would tell us that we must call 7pm 1pm? In case this isn’t a woosh, as someone suggested, even in New York, NY day length varies with more than 5 hours between December and June. And the origin of the hypothetical world time is irrelevant when judging the validity of arguments against it being functional. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2013, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/30 "2013-07-28T22:55:40Z")
Our boat functions on UTC time, we change which day it is in “the middle” of our day. It’s not a big deal. I for one would love a global time that everyone used universally. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/31 "2013-07-30T09:44:02Z")
> [@Kenm](#): > > [**Sunrise, sunset**](http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=1165&month=12&year=2012&obj=sun&afl=-11&day=1) times in December 2012 at Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. I wouldn’t call that particularly far North. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2013, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533/32 "2013-07-30T10:23:14Z")
What a timely question ;), I was visiting the Greenwich Meridian only yesterday (really, I had family visiting me in London, and I took my 8 year old nieces to stand across the prime meridian in Greenwich and listen to some actor in a frock coat talk a lot about navigation). The Prime Meridian was introduced (in various countries) to help seagoing navigation. The British version, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted across the country in the mid 19th century, due to the spread of the railways. The Meridian line moved around, and there were multiple versions (such as a different one in Paris), until the International Meridian Conference of 1884, where international time zones were agreed (apart from in France, Brazil and the Dominican republic). Interestingly, Greenwich itself (a suburb of London) is currently one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, as we are on British Summer Time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-zone/664533.md?page=1)