track chick wrote:
In the UK it is light until 10pm in midsummer.
That has more to do with latitude instead of longitude, which the time zones are loosely based off of.
track chick wrote:
In the UK it is light until 10pm in midsummer.
That has more to do with latitude instead of longitude, which the time zones are loosely based off of.
Laowai wrote:
Consider China: Despite being thousands of miles across (enough for four or five time zones), the whole country is officially on Beijing time. So, those few who live in the far western regions have the sun rising or setting at all sorts of ridiculous times.
But, just to confuse everyone, they do have their own unofficial time which, while used for lots of everyday things, can't be used for such official things as train schedules. And, of course, there are plenty of situations where one may not be sure which time system is being used. Fun.
Actually, if you go to Wikipedia and read what they've got under "time zone" or the like, it's fascinating. I've always known that time zones in the US were initiated when interstate rail travel needed standardized schedules. 1863 is the date.
Factoid: there are actually 38 (?) time zones around the world, not the 24 you'd expect. I spent a summer in Newfoundland and remember "Atlantic Standard Time," or whatever that extra half-hour was called. Also, there's an extra hour, or half hour, when you visit parts of the Caribbean--St. Thomas, for example.
Factoid: the largest differential between two times zones is, you guessed it, between China and Afghanistan: three-and-a-half hours. That's because, as this poster noted, all of China is on Beijing time. Imagine crossing the border into Afghanistan: you've just finished lunch and it's time for breakfast!
Wait a minute....my in-laws were from Labrador!
This thread hits close to home for me. My back yard is literally in a different time zone. I live right on the state border. The only problem I had was when I first moved here I had contractors coming into town from across the border and forgot to specify who's time to use. I think they used that as an excuse for forgetting the appointment though :)
I lived for 18 years in a small town in TN that literally bordered the line between Eastern and Central time. Some people in town worked in central time, others in eastern. I think everyone pretty much set the clock in their house by where they actually lived. Eastern time was known as "fast time" and central was known as "slow time". If you told someone to meet you at 6 pm you might get the question "Fast time or slow time?" if it was not clear from context. All in all it was never a big problem. Just like the tv ads that say "Catch and all new episode at 8, 7 central". You should be able to keep track of such simple math pretty easily.
ray wrote:Wait a minute....my in-laws were from Labrador!ray - where are they from? Not too many communities in Labrador, and I've probably been to most of them. Maybe I've met them... (not likely) Almost certainly I've met people who would know them, or know of them.
I think this is a great topic. I too have often wondered about how people who live on the border of time zones live. I know it would be simple math to keep track, but it also seems like it would be a pain to always be keeping track. I don't know about you guys, but I have a hard time figuring out what my alarm clock says as it is without remembering what time zone the clock is set for.
That basketball player story is hilarious. Couldn't you just see some athlete from your college saying that.
KudzuRunner wrote:I've always known that time zones in the US were initiated when interstate rail travel needed standardized schedules. 1863 is the date.
The concept of standardized time zones was proposed by a Canadian engineer and surveyor, Sir Sanford Fleming.
Hey..... I'M a Canadian Engineer too! Cool coincidence, eh?
Sir Fleming originally hailed from Scotland.
Hey.... I have some Scottish blood too...
(maybe I'm famous too)
Even stranger is the International Date Line. I once read about a series of islands in the South Pacific that were bisected by the line even though some were only a mile or so apart. Some people lived on one and worked on another. From the Wikipedia entry, it seems that it was Kirabiti, though the problem has been solved: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line
Obviously what some heads-up race director needs to do is set up a marathon that begins in one time zone and ends in the next time over towards the west: i.e., begin in EST, end in CST. He can bill it--fancifully, of course--as "The World's Fastest Marathon." Subtract one hour from everybody's time! Begin at 8 AM (EST). The winner crosses the line at 9:08 (CST), breaking the two hour barrier!
3:58 marathoners break three hours for the first time!
Everybody's a winner!
Please, somebody: Do this. When you do, please send my 10% agent's fee to:
6 CR 1069
Oxford, MS 38655
KudzuRunner wrote:
Obviously what some heads-up race director needs to do is set up a marathon that begins in one time zone and ends in the next time over towards the west: i.e., begin in EST, end in CST. He can bill it--fancifully, of course--as "The World's Fastest Marathon." Subtract one hour from everybody's time! Begin at 8 AM (EST). The winner crosses the line at 9:08 (CST), breaking the two hour barrier!
3:58 marathoners break three hours for the first time!
Everybody's a winner!
Please, somebody: Do this. When you do, please send my 10% agent's fee to:
6 CR 1069
Oxford, MS 38655
Chip time wouldn't be affected. Neither would the timing clock.
Better idea yet: Make it a 10K. Call it the "Time Travel 10K." (Nice alliteration.) The point-to-point course travels east to west, across the time-zone line.
Finish in less than 60 minutes and you've traveled BACK IN TIME!! You've run NEGATIVE SPLITS!!!!
The winner--in 29:35, say--actually GAINS TIME. He starts at 8 AM EST and finishes at 7:29:35. (CST)
On second thought, maybe the marathon is a better idea.
hujouty wrote:
Chip time wouldn't be affected. Neither would the timing clock.[/quote]Don't be a killjoy...
hujouty wrote:
Chip time wouldn't be affected. Neither would the timing clock.
Well, duh. But as W. C. Fields--or was it P. T. Barnum?--said, Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. Or intelligence, for that matter. Or willingness to engage in fanciful behavior.
It's a joke, huj. A j-o-k-e.