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Days and Nights Occur Because The Earth Spins On An Axis

The document discusses how time zones work and were developed. It explains that the earth is divided into 24 time zones, with each zone being one hour apart. It provides details on how different countries and regions have adopted standardized time zones over history to help with things like train schedules. It also gives specifics on the different US time zones and how daylight saving time affects them.

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johncarlosdalisay17
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24 views2 pages

Days and Nights Occur Because The Earth Spins On An Axis

The document discusses how time zones work and were developed. It explains that the earth is divided into 24 time zones, with each zone being one hour apart. It provides details on how different countries and regions have adopted standardized time zones over history to help with things like train schedules. It also gives specifics on the different US time zones and how daylight saving time affects them.

Uploaded by

johncarlosdalisay17
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Days and nights occur because the earth spins on an

axis. The sun illuminates approximately half of the earth’s


surface, but since the earth is constantly turning, we divide
the earth into twenty-four time zones; one for each hour of
the day. Some time zone boundaries zigzag so that people
living in one region or country can have the same time.
Until the nineteenth century, each city kept local
time. Clocks were not often very accurate, but they
could be synchronized, or matched, with a sundial.
Railroad engineers created the first time zones in
Great Britain. Railroad would use the same tracks to
send trains in different directions so an inaccurate
clock could cause a disaster. A Canadian named
Sanford Fleming first proposed the idea of universal
time zones; by 1900, most nations began to use what
became known as “standard time.”
The time along the prime meridian in Greenwich,
England, is known as Greenwich Mean Time, or
GMT. People communicating across two different
parts of the globe often use Greenwich Mean Time.
The east coast of the United States is five time zones
behind GMT, so if it is midnight in Greenwich it is
7:00 p.m. in Florida. Most of the United States sets
their clocks ahead one hour in the summer, so during
Daylight Saving Time the east coast of the United
States is four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time.
There are four time zones in the continental
United States. The continental United States refers to
the forty-eight contiguous states and does not include
Alaska or Hawaii. The time zones are Eastern,
Central, Mountain, and Pacific. You might notice that
live television programs often begin at 8:00 Eastern,
7:00 Central, 6:00 Mountain and 5:00 Pacific. Alaska
is an hour behind Pacific Time and Hawaii is two
hours behind Pacific Time.
For convenience, almost all of Alaska uses a
single time zone. During the period when Daylight
Saving Time is not in use, the sun is overhead at about
noon in Alaska’s capital, Juneau. Juneau is in the
eastern portion of Alaska. Nome is in western Alaska,
and while Nome has the same time zone as Juneau,
the sun is directly overhead as late as 3:08 p.m.

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