Way OT - Why do we need time zones?

[Nitwit]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

 

[Rip_E_2_Joe_PA]

It's crazy

 

[wex18]

What time would the lots open for the Blue-White Game?

 

[BlueBand]

Is this crazy?

Yes. Next.

 

[NittPicker]

Some organizations (such as a military force conducting simultaneous operations at different points around the globe) do exactly what you suggest in order to avoid any confusion. They use Greenwich Mean Time, aka Zero Meridian, aka Zulu.

That aside, noon should occur at noon regardless of where you are. Noon at 2:00AM would be weird.

 

[LafayetteBear]

Imagine Los Angeles in the dead of night and Moscow simultaneously in the middle of the day. Should it be really be the same time in both places? That would be weird.

 

[Nitwit]

Yes - it is the same time. We just choose to call them different hours.

 

[LafayetteBear]

Yes - it is the same time. We just choose to call them different hours.

Yeah. I was suggesting, perhaps inarticulately, that we call them different hours for a reason. Should it be dark out at high noon? Should the sun be at its zenith at midnight? I think not. It is possible to do so, but it goes against centuries of tradition, and would be confusing as hell.

 

[LionJim]

Yeah. I was suggesting, perhaps inarticulately, that we call them different hours for a reason. Should it be dark out at high noon? Should the sun be at its zenith at midnight? I think not. It is possible to do so, but it goes against centuries of tradition, and would be confusing as hell.

Plus then the movie "3:10 to Yuma" would make no sense.

 

[Royal_Coaster]

Well now, who is going to go and adjust all those sundials?

 

[Obliviax]

OK...that's pretty random.

 

[rmclion]

Yes - it is the same time. We just choose to call them different hours.

It is not the same time. We use "time" as a clock measured locally by the Sun.

 

[Art]

Yes - it is the same time. We just choose to call them different hours.

Now you're getting into high level; theoretical physics.

 

[psuro]

Plus then the movie "3:10 to Yuma" would make no sense.

Would it have been better?

 

[ThePennsyOracle]

I don't know why we need time zones, but threads like this are why we need this board.

 

[manatree]

I stumbled across this article a few years ago. Interesting little read.

.
The US needs to retire daylight savings and just have two time zones

 

[artsandletters]

Some organizations (such as a military force conducting simultaneous operations at different points around the globe) do exactly what you suggest in order to avoid any confusion. They use Greenwich Mean Time, aka Zero Meridian, aka Zulu.

That aside, noon should occur at noon regardless of where you are. Noon at 2:00AM would be weird.

2 AM would be the new noon.

 

[artsandletters]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

Maybe you'd be able to get a plumber at 2 AM, or would they all be at lunch.

 

[psuro]

Without time zones we lose the importance of time.

If we lose the importance of time we lose the concept of an objective start and stop

Baseball has no concept of time and as such has no finite objective start and stop beyond what happens on the field. It creates an unending scenario

Without the concept of time lawyers will have no limits as to when they stop billing their clients

Without the concept of time your wife would not know she is keeping you from getting out the door to beat traffic

Without the concept of time Life becomes an unending scenario like baseball, lawyers never stop billing their clients, and you will never get ahead of traffic

Time is important. Time zones are important. Do not mess with time.

 

[hagberg]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

Maybe not crazy, but also not doable, and for one very simple reason that you inadvertently expressed in your OP: Who gets to keep their current time? Your China example presupposes that the U.S. -- probably the east coast -- gets to remain the same while everyone else changes. Why not give the Seychelles (and the rest in its TZ) the nod, or better yet Iran so we could also adjust by a half hour, and adjust accordingly?

The amount of change that would have to take place, not least of which is the way we wrap our brains around hours of the day, would be mountainous.

 

[dshumbero]

 

[LionDeNittany]

Yes - it is the same time. We just choose to call them different hours.

No it's not. It is Noon in Moscow and Midnight in Los Angeles.

Give or take.

Noon = Mid Day = 12pm
Midnight = Mid night = 12am

LdN

 

[john4psu]

In short, we have time zones because before we had it there was chaos

Watch this...

View embedded media

We have agents fighting against Kaos 24/7.

 

[Ranger Dan]

Yes - it is the same time. We just choose to call them different hours.

This is the correct answer...

 

[heckmans]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

Even crazier...time is just a made-up human construct. Let's get rid of time all together. imagine never being late for anything again!!! Amazing!!!!!
When does PSU kick off on saturday?
Who knows!?!?!?

 

[Woodpecker]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

Just so I'm clear, people will start work at say, 3:16 AM in New York but, in Pittsburgh they'll start at 3:34 AM, Atlanta at 3:49 AM, Chicago at 4:11 AM ... etc. Yeah, that'll be easier. Will kickoff for the game be at 9:37 AM, 1:07 PM, or 5:37 (night game!)? I guess it's easier that everyone from Portland, ME to Portland, OR to Kuala Lumpur can tune in at the same time (e.g., 9:37 AM) to watch.

 

[Victor E. Bell]

 

[BlueBand]

Even crazier...time is just a made-up human construct.

Yes it is, but it brings organization to how we live.

Our time is specific to this planet. Days are based on a revolution of Earth around its axis. Hours and minutes and seconds are arbitrary breakdowns that we created. Similarly, a year is one trip of the earth around the sun. We use these measurements to mark the passing of time, aging, etc. If we go to Mars, or any other planet, the length of a "day" or "year" using our methodology would be completely different.

What's interesting is our bodies have adapted to this cycle. There are probably alien races on planets that have 200 days in a year, and only 18 hours in a day, for example. And that's just assuming they measure/experience time in the same way we do.

Of course, then there is the effect of speed on time. The closer you approach the speed of light, time begins to slow down. Theoretically if you had a spaceship that could travel near the speed of light, you could go to space and travel at that speed continuously for what the clocks would measure on the ship as 10 earth years. However, upon returning to earth, you would find that many more years/decades/centuries had passed on earth. Everyone you knew would be dead. Yet your body would only have aged 10 earth years. So, theoretically a time machine that only goes forward could be built.

 

[Ranger Dan]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

Elimination of daylight savings should be a slam dunk. It was a great idea and served a purpose before electricity and lights were ubiquitous.

I also agree that there should only be one time for the entire world, but never really felt that strongly about it. The hour is just a way to break up the day into 24 different segments, and it doesn't matter what you call them. Why do people in Paris and LA have to wake up at approximately the same time showing on the clock? Our lives will continue to be scheduled around the dawn and setting of the sun, regardless of what the clock says. BTW, I am pretty sure that China only has one time zone and it's a pretty large chunk of land. I just googled china time zone and found this article discussing why one time zone is such a bad idea. The answer is that when some people see the sunset, the clock says 12:00 AM and when they see the sun rise the clock says 10:00 AM... Oh, the horror!!!

https://www.theatlantic.com/china/a...has-one-time-zone-and-thats-a-problem/281136/

By the way, why is 12:00 AM in the middle of the night and 12:00 PM in the mid day? This is so counter-intuitive... If you break the day into two halves, and each of those halves into 12 segments, then why are do we change from morning to night at 11:59/12:00 as opposed to 12:59-1:00?

Another question is why divide the day into 24 pieces and then divide into 2 halves. Why not just use military time of 0 to 24 hours?

Furthermore, why divide by 24 and not 10? Is there some meaning to the 24 hours or is this just an artifact that doesn't have any real meaning? Is there a scientific meaning to the length of a second, minute, or hour?

Having said all of that, since the United States hasn't even adopted the metric system, when it is used virtually everywhere outside of the US, I doubt that the United States, let alone the entire world, would agree to changing any of this.

 

[PSU2UNC]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

Obviously there are two aspects to this that are getting confused here: time versus "at what point you are during the daily rotation of the earth". We use those two things interchangeably, but obviously they are not really the same.

Every longitude on earth is at a slightly different point in the earth's rotation (relative to sun position) at a given timepoint. So as someone pointed out, "sun noon" in Pittsburgh and Philly occurs at different times even though they are in the same time zone. So you need to adjust our time reference because otherwise it would be chaos (as other have pointed out).

But I think what you are proposing is to adjust everyone to the same reference time which would be independent of the "sun time." So it would be pitch black at "noon". The problems with this would be related primarily to biology. Our bodies like sunlight and you would find a higher instance of health issues (including depression) if you forced people to become nocturnal.

So can also probably appreciate the political issues this would present (i.e. who gets to live in the daylight); a microcosm of this can be seen in China:

https://www.theatlantic.com/china/a...has-one-time-zone-and-thats-a-problem/281136/


So, yes, sorry this is a dumb idea.

 

[LionJim]

Our bodies like sunlight and you would find a higher instance of health issues (including depression) if you forced people to become nocturnal.

Sure, but where does it say that losing time zones would mean that everyone in the world would have to be awake at the same time? I think losing time zones is a stupid idea myself, but I would still expect to go to work a little bit before or a little bit after sunrise, whether the clock says it's 6:30 AM or 9:30 PM.

 

[Woodpecker]

Sure, but where does it say that losing time zones would mean that everyone in the world would have to be awake at the same time? I think losing time zones is a stupid idea myself, but I would still expect to go to work a little bit before or a little bit after sunrise, whether the clock says it's 6:30 AM or 9:30 PM.

And 12 miles west (depending on your latitude), you would start at 6:31AM or 9:31PM

 

[LionJim]

And 12 miles west (depending on your latitude), you would start at 6:31AM or 9:31PM

If time were outlawed, only outlaws would keep time.

 

[psuro]

If there was no time, there would not have been the movie "Back to the Future". And we would have never known the importance of the flux capacitor.

 

[coveydidnt]

Instead of timezones we can all function on true local time, based on sunrise, sunset and true noon.

All of our smart phones should easily be able translate and synchronize our schedules with others.

I know. People will say what about people who can't afford smartphones. Well, those people will be in big trouble. Maybe we put them all prison or something.

Gosh what a stupid question in the first place.

 

[BoulderFish]

Yeah. I was suggesting, perhaps inarticulately, that we call them different hours for a reason. Should it be dark out at high noon? Should the sun be at its zenith at midnight? I think not. It is possible to do so, but it goes against centuries of tradition, and would be confusing as hell.

It would be confusing for a few days -- maybe a couple of weeks -- and then we would all adapt.

It's never going to happen, so it's just a "for fun" hypothetical, but it absolutely does make complete sense to drop the time zones.

 

[CF LION]

Check out this time zone map of the US from 1913. Not sure why the jagged delineation on the western edges of the Eastern and Central zones.

 

[BoulderFish]

Obviously there are two aspects to this that are getting confused here: time versus "at what point you are during the daily rotation of the earth". We use those two things interchangeably, but obviously they are not really the same.

Every longitude on earth is at a slightly different point in the earth's rotation (relative to sun position) at a given timepoint. So as someone pointed out, "sun noon" in Pittsburgh and Philly occurs at different times even though they are in the same time zone. So you need to adjust our time reference because otherwise it would be chaos (as other have pointed out).

But I think what you are proposing is to adjust everyone to the same reference time which would be independent of the "sun time." So it would be pitch black at "noon". The problems with this would be related primarily to biology. Our bodies like sunlight and you would find a higher instance of health issues (including depression) if you forced people to become nocturnal.

So can also probably appreciate the political issues this would present (i.e. who gets to live in the daylight); a microcosm of this can be seen in China:

https://www.theatlantic.com/china/a...has-one-time-zone-and-thats-a-problem/281136/


So, yes, sorry this is a dumb idea.

He's not proposing that everyone would be "up and awake" between 7am-10pm everywhere. Everyone would still be awake during the same approximate "time" relative to the earth's orientation relative to the sun, but they would no longer be awake during the same approximate "time" relative to the clocks on their walls.

Put another way, everything in our lives would be exactly the same, except the clocks on our walls may say a different time than what we're used to.

 

[Osprey Lion]

Wouldn't it be simpler if the whole world was on the same time? I get the idea that in China they might have sunrise at 6 pm for example, but you could just have different times for when things occur in different places. Plus all this daylight savings stuff doesn't make any sense. People will still get up when the sun rises and go to bed after it sets no matter what time you choose to call it. And of course you would never have to adjust your watch when you travel. Is this crazy?

I never thought about that before but it makes as much sense as what we currently have.

 

[sluggo72]