The History of How Time Zones Came to Be

The History of How Time Zones Came to Be Prior to the late nineteenth century, time keeping was a purely local phenomenon. Each town would set their clocks to noon when the sun reached its zenith each day. A clockmaker or town clock would be the official time and the citizens would set their pocket watches and clocks to the time of the town. Enterprising citizens would offer their services as mobile clock setters, carrying a watch with the accurate time to adjust the clocks in customers homes on a weekly basis. Travel between cities meant having to change ones pocket watch upon arrival. However, once railroads began to operate and move people rapidly across great distances, time became much more critical. In the early years of the railroads, the schedules were very confusing because each stop was based on a different local time. The standardization of time was essential to efficient operation of railroads. The History of the Standardization of Time Zones In 1878, Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming proposed the system of worldwide time zones that we use today. He recommended that the world be divided into twenty-four time zones, each spaced 15 degrees of longitude apart. Since the earth rotates once every 24 hours and there are 360 degrees of longitude, each hour the earth rotates one-twenty-fourth of a circle or 15 degrees of longitude. Sir Flemings time zones were heralded as a brilliant solution to a chaotic problem worldwide. United States railroad companies began utilizing Flemings standard time zones on November 18, 1883. In 1884 an International Prime Meridian Conference was held in Washington D.C. to standardize time and select the prime meridian. The conference selected the longitude of Greenwich, England as zero degrees longitude and established the 24 time zones based on the prime meridian. Although the time zones had been established, not all countries switched immediately. Though most U.S. states began to adhere to the Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern time zones by 1895, Congress didnt make the use of these time zones mandatory until the Standard Time Act of 1918. How Different Regions of the Word Use Time Zones Today, many countries operate on variations of the time zones proposed by Sir Fleming. All of China (which should span five time zones) uses a single time zone eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (known by the abbreviation UTC, based on the time zone running through Greenwich at 0 degrees longitude). Australia uses three time zones its central time zone is a half-hour ahead of its designated time zone. Several countries in the Middle East and South Asia also utilize half-hour time zones. Since time zones are based on segments of longitude and lines of longitude narrow at the poles, scientists working at the North and South Poles simply use UTC time. Otherwise, Antarctica would be divided into 24 very thin time zones! The time zones of the United States are standardized by Congress and although the lines were drawn to avoid populated areas, sometimes theyve been moved to avoid complication. There are nine time zones in the U.S. and its territories, they include Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, Alaska, Hawaii-Aleutian, Samoa, Wake Island, and Guam. With the growth of the Internet and global communication and commerce, some have advocated a new worldwide time system.

5 Types of Conditionals

5 Types of Conditionals 5 Types of Conditionals 5 Types of Conditionals By Mark Nichol When crafting â€Å"If (this), then (that)† statements, note that several varieties exist, distinguished by tense and probability. This post describes, with examples, various types of conditional statements. â€Å"Zero conditional† pertains to things that occur in the natural course of events: â€Å"If a person stands out in the rain, he or she gets wet.† Both the main clause (â€Å"he or she gets wet†) and the subordinate clause â€Å"if a person stands out in the rain†) are written in the present simple tense. The first conditional is a form of sentences in which the first clause includes if and a present simple-statement, followed by a future-simple statement in the second clause. By comparison, a second conditional follows the past simple with would and the infinitive. The distinction is that first conditionals are likely but not certain to happen, as in â€Å"If I talk to him, I will remind him,† while a second conditional describes something unlikely to occur, as in â€Å"If he showed some initiative, he would get a raise,† or something that is impossible, as in â€Å"If I could go back in time, I would do things differently.† A third conditional, by contrast, uses the past perfect and the past participle to describe something that did not occur in the past and therefore will never happen (at least, that iteration of the occurrence will never happen, although a repeat attempt might succeed), as in â€Å"If she had remembered to set her alarm, she would have gotten to school on time.† Beware of writing conditional sentences in which an if statement posed in the present-simple tense is followed by a statement that is true regardless of the conditional established in the previous clause, as in â€Å"If you want to get a great burrito, my favorite taqueria is next to the movie theater downtown.† The writer’s favorite taqueria is in the stated location regardless of the desires of the recipient of the communication, so the conditional form is not appropriate here; it would be better to write, â€Å"If you want to get a great burrito, go to my favorite taqueria, next to the movie theater downtown.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Style category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:25 Subordinating ConjunctionsThe Four Sounds of the Spelling OUParataxis and Hypotaxis