Science · 6 pages · 12 min
How time zones follow politics as well as the sun
Civil clocks share one hour across places where the Sun is not overhead together.
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From the opening
A time zone is a region that agrees to keep the same clock even though the Sun is not overhead at the same moment everywhere inside it. The shared hour is a rule laid over the sky, not a property of the sky itself. The opening covers solar noon versus the shared clock, why real zone borders jog, and what railroads did to the hour.
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Inside
- Solar noon versus the shared clock
- Why real zone borders jog
- What railroads did to the hour
- The date line as a choice
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Civil time zones as political overlays on solar time
- Standard railway time in the nineteenth century