eli5 When did humanity start counting time?

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I’m sure I haven’t asked the question correctly, but if all the clocks in the world are aligned, when did we start it? How did the entire world agree that midnight is midnight and any second behind or ahead is out of line?

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21 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

In past clocks were regulated by setting noon during noon (when sun is at its highest, the very peak during day). Then we moved to time zones, when we needed to regulate difference between clocks at different east/west places for train schedules.

Anonymous 0 Comments

We’ve tracked time locally since at least the ancient Greeks and likely earlier.

Greenwich Mean Time was created around 1850. The modern timezone system started around the same time as railroads allowed people to move faster and basing times on “local noon” became problematic. This was done initially on a country by country basis.

By 1930 most countries had adopted the standard timezones based on an offset from GMT.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In past clocks were regulated by setting noon during noon (when sun is at its highest, the very peak during day). Then we moved to time zones, when we needed to regulate difference between clocks at different east/west places for train schedules.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In past clocks were regulated by setting noon during noon (when sun is at its highest, the very peak during day). Then we moved to time zones, when we needed to regulate difference between clocks at different east/west places for train schedules.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In 1880 Greenwich Royal Observatory. This was chosen as the Prime meridian. All time zones are counted from there.
The clock on the observatory was officially declared as the exact time
So 12 noon in Greenwich England is where all time in the world was first agreed as being “The Time”.

https://greenwichmeantime.com/what-is-gmt/

Anonymous 0 Comments

We’ve tracked time locally since at least the ancient Greeks and likely earlier.

Greenwich Mean Time was created around 1850. The modern timezone system started around the same time as railroads allowed people to move faster and basing times on “local noon” became problematic. This was done initially on a country by country basis.

By 1930 most countries had adopted the standard timezones based on an offset from GMT.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Have a look at Greenwich Mean Time and Paris Meridian Time. Both were contenders for a base time for which other countries (who needed to have a united timezone due to railways and colonisation in general) would be a certain number of hours ahead of behind. Having an international date line over the relatively uninhabited central Pacific worked in both cases.

Anonymous 0 Comments

We’ve tracked time locally since at least the ancient Greeks and likely earlier.

Greenwich Mean Time was created around 1850. The modern timezone system started around the same time as railroads allowed people to move faster and basing times on “local noon” became problematic. This was done initially on a country by country basis.

By 1930 most countries had adopted the standard timezones based on an offset from GMT.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In 1880 Greenwich Royal Observatory. This was chosen as the Prime meridian. All time zones are counted from there.
The clock on the observatory was officially declared as the exact time
So 12 noon in Greenwich England is where all time in the world was first agreed as being “The Time”.

https://greenwichmeantime.com/what-is-gmt/

Anonymous 0 Comments

In 1880 Greenwich Royal Observatory. This was chosen as the Prime meridian. All time zones are counted from there.
The clock on the observatory was officially declared as the exact time
So 12 noon in Greenwich England is where all time in the world was first agreed as being “The Time”.

https://greenwichmeantime.com/what-is-gmt/