How were timezones fixed by countries? Why did some countries get 3 timezones and some get only 1 despite being the same size? How did we get all the countries to measure time globally using the same measurement?

Question

How were timezones fixed by countries? Why did some countries get 3 timezones and some get only 1 despite being the same size? How did we get all the countries to measure time globally using the same measurement?

In: Earth Science

Answer 1

Countries decide their own time zones – if one country wants to make up 12 time zones and another country of the same size wants to just use 1, they have that right.

And then sometimes territories within a country have the autonomy to decide their own time zones, too. Like in the US, states can decide if they want to observe daylight saving time or not, which impacts which time zone they fall in when other states in the same general longitude range switch over.