Poll of the Day > why are islands in the pacific the first time zones?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I looked it up and places like Samoa reach the new day first. you would think western europe would be the center of the world for whoever came up with the time zones.

zikten, timezones as we know it didn't come into effect until the late 1800's, starting in america, because of railroads.
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The bigger question is why does China have one time zone? Also GMT is the standard 0 time zone and everything radiating out from there is plus or minus.
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Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

The bigger question is why does China have one time zone?

its just a political thing. the government decided to make it simple I guess. cause yea, they are even bigger than America. but they just all pretend it works. when I was over there, our guide told us about it and acted like it was a matter of pride for China that they are all unified in one time zone

Zikten posted...

Miroku_of_Nite1 posted...

The bigger question is why does China have one time zone?

its just a political thing. the government decided to make it simple I guess. cause yea, they are even bigger than America. but they just all pretend it works. when I was over there, our guide told us about it and acted like it was a matter of pride for China that they are all unified in one time zone

Yeah it's dumb. If 1 man in Changchun and 1 man in Kashgar both set their alarm for 8 a.m., the man in Changchun will wake up to the sun high in the sky, while the man in Kashgar will wake up in darkness. Ideally the time zones would be set up every 15 degree increments on either side of 0 longitude (Greenwich). But that would be a problem in some places. Like half of Denver being in two time zones the Bay Area being split, and same with Osaka. But though shit is all I got to say.
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1 time zone is not all bad. At least you don't have to figure the time lag and exact travel duration when you are looking at your flight ticket. For the day light problem they can set up their own day light saving system like telling the kids class starts a 6 and the parents come to work at 7, something like that.

Western Europe is the center of the time zones. The 0 meridian runs through Greenwich. The international date line is directly opposite of that, largely because it's really inconvenient.
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ZeldaMutant posted...

Western Europe is the center of the time zones. The 0 meridian runs through Greenwich. The international date line is directly opposite of that, largely because it's really inconvenient.

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Zikten and NMB should publish a book together that is just their questions about society and the world

I think a lot could be learned
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Mead posted...

Zikten and NMB should publish a book together that is just their questions about society and the world

I think a lot could be learned

And nobody would read it
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