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Sir Col
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Time Zone Phenomena
« on: Dec 14th, 2003, 3:42pm » |
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Does anyone have any ideas about this... ?
Taking advantage of World Time Zones, and the rotation of the earth, what is the greatest length of time you can spend in one day?
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towr
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #1 on: Dec 14th, 2003, 11:36pm » |
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it's more than two days.. but that's rather obvious..
I think you can get about 6 extra hours beyond that..
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| « Last Edit: Dec 15th, 2003, 12:08am by towr » |
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Icarus
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #2 on: Dec 15th, 2003, 9:59am » |
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How so? Each day begins at 12 am in the time zone just east of the International Date Line. It ends at 12 am in the time zone just west of the International Date Line. Perhaps I am wrong in this, but I believe that time-of-day-wise, the first time zone is 1 hour before the other (just like every other time zone transition), so this accounts for a 47 period. Daylight savings time may give you another hour if done just right, but this is still only 48. Where do you get an additional 6 hours?
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towr
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #3 on: Dec 15th, 2003, 10:19am » |
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If you look at the dateline some countries are poking out way to one side or the other..
Some even changed it just to be first/last in the millenium I think..
But perhaps six is a bit of an overestimation..
At one place I at least saw that the time went from GMT -12 to +14 So that's at least two extra hours
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| « Last Edit: Dec 15th, 2003, 10:19am by towr » |
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Sir Col
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #4 on: Dec 15th, 2003, 11:19am » |
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I found this map from the U.S. Naval Observatory:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/graphics/TimeZoneMap2003.pdf
This table lists the times zones:
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/timezone.htm
It seems to indicate that Rawaki Islands, Kiribati, is GMT+13, and Line Islands, Kiritibati, is GMT+14. I could't find anywhere in the world (other than the International Date Line West) which is GMT-12. Also I can't be certain of whether it is possible to travel from these irregular GMT+ time zones, which overlap the GMT- time zones, without passing into a GMT+ zone.
If it is possible, it does seem suggest that it is possible to spend 50 hours in one date.
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #5 on: Dec 15th, 2003, 11:46am » |
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I don't think traveling between the timezones will be a problem. If your in an isolated zone, you can just wait a few hours till the surrounding area is in the same day.. There are fast enough planes to catch up..
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Sir Col
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #6 on: Dec 15th, 2003, 2:04pm » |
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Good point, towr, and thanks.
In fact, being in the overlap (GMT-11) makes the journey to the other extremum easier than it would have been; travelling to GMT-12 is only across one time zone now, rather than across 26.
My only other query is whether any countries actually exist in the GMT-12 time zone, and if that makes any difference?
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Icarus
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #7 on: Dec 15th, 2003, 6:23pm » |
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I don't see that it would make a difference whether or not any countries lie in that time zone, just as long as some actual surface of the Earth (including ocean) does. So you start out the day on a ship instead of on land. You still get to count the entire time.
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Alan Russell
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So does this mean that there can actually officially be 26 hours difference between 2 points on the Earth at any given time? Furthermore, can anybody name two points
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Sir Col
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #9 on: Mar 28th, 2004, 2:04am » |
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As Icarus said in the previous post, although there is no land mass at GMT -12 (on the International Date Line West), you could be at that location in a ship. Christmas Islands, Kiribati is GMT +14. So there would be 26 hours time difference between those two locations.
Check out this World Time Clock:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/custom.html?continent=all&low= 0&sort=2
(remember it doesn't include a time reference for GMT -12 because there is no country on the IDLW)
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Al Russell
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aha - I was wondering why there was no listing for -12 hrs - thought it might have been daylight savings related.
Due to daylight savings time, could that gap of 26 hours between -12hrs GMT (northern hemisphere) and +14hrs GMT (southern hemisphere) expand to 28 hours? (-13 and +15 respectively?)
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rmsgrey
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #11 on: Mar 29th, 2004, 3:13am » |
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Daylight savings is (in my experience) a +1 to the time zone, though the Northern and Southern hemispheres apply it at different times. So you could possibly get +15, but the -12 zone would go to -11 under Daylight Savings. Historically, I believe there have been daylight savings of local+2.
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John_Gaughan
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #12 on: Mar 29th, 2004, 6:26am » |
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I thought DST was mostly practiced in the U.S., with few other countries taking part (I think New Zealand is one). In any event, taking advantage of DST to maximize time spent in one day would mean ending the day at the west edge of Alaska, which I believe reaches out to the date line.
What I don't get is why we even bother. More than 50% of the year is spent in DST, so why not just make it "normal" time?
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towr
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #13 on: Mar 29th, 2004, 6:58am » |
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on Mar 29th, 2004, 6:26am, John_Gaughan wrote:| I thought DST was mostly practiced in the U.S., with few other countries taking part (I think New Zealand is one). |
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I think the whole of the EU has daylight saving as well (at least we have it the Netherlands, and every country our cable television provides seems to have it.. Which means France, England, Germany and Belgium)
Quote:| What I don't get is why we even bother. More than 50% of the year is spent in DST, so why not just make it "normal" time? |
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Because it saves a lot of energy (and thus money) by making better use of the light the sun provides.
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| « Last Edit: Mar 29th, 2004, 7:01am by towr » |
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rmsgrey
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #14 on: Mar 30th, 2004, 3:17am » |
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The following link has start and end times for DST internationally. Personally, I would have expected a more uniform approach - after all, the celestial mechanics involved are the same everywhere - And I don't think the difference between the fourth Sunday and the last Sunday of a given month is significant enough to compare with the convenience of having an international standard changeover date...
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Speaker
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #15 on: Apr 5th, 2004, 2:18am » |
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Did you know that it was Ben Franklin that first suggested Daylight savings time. He was trying to save energy.
Does anybody know what kind of energy he was worried about?
(at least according to the story that I know  )
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towr
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #16 on: Apr 5th, 2004, 2:55am » |
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on Apr 5th, 2004, 2:18am, Speaker wrote:| Does anybody know what kind of energy he was worried about? |
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Well, they didn't have electricity in those days, nor gasoline or kerosine, so.. candles?
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Speaker
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #17 on: Apr 5th, 2004, 5:07pm » |
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No, not candles. But, people are still trying to preserve it even today, although it is in a different format.
I think he first got the idea while he was in France, or England.
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Icarus
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #18 on: Apr 5th, 2004, 6:15pm » |
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Yes they did too have electricity in those days! Ben himself was the chief electrical investigator of his time. Much of our basic concepts of electricity come from his investigations.
(Okay, I know you were refering to power distribution, but felt like mentioning that Ben was a first-class scientist in this field.)
Ben did not introduce the idea of Daylight Savings Time to save energy. Rather, his thought was that the shift in our daily schedules would allow for more of the busiest part of the day to occur in daylight, which is those days was almost a necessity for many activities.
The idea of using it to save natural resources ("energy") dates back only to world war II (I don't know when this was proposed, but it was not adopted until then in the USA). The need for resources to support the war effort led to serious rationing. The adoption of DST meant less need for artificial light. By the time the war was over, most people had adjusted to it and appreciated the extra evening illumination. So the idea continued, even though the rationing was gone.
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
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I wonder: Which is larger
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Speaker
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #19 on: Apr 5th, 2004, 6:33pm » |
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Icarus, I do not have any references handy, but I learned that Ben wanted to reduce the amount of whale oil consumption. It seems that whale oil was used for lighting. 
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Icarus
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #20 on: Apr 5th, 2004, 7:02pm » |
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NO! NO! NO! I CAN'T be wrong AGAIN! It didn't happen, I tell you! 
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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Speaker
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #21 on: Apr 5th, 2004, 7:11pm » |
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I have a little salt handy, it was world war I when it was first used.
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Nigel_Parsons
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Re: Time Zone Phenomena
« Reply #22 on: Apr 12th, 2004, 10:58am » |
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Science Fiction readers may remember that in Larry Niven's "Ringworld" the opening scene is one of the main protagonist, Louis Wu, being transported to cities in different time zones in order to maximise the length of his birthday celebrations
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