Why are some countries a day behind/ahead others if time moves at the same rate everywhere?

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Why are some countries a day behind/ahead others if time moves at the same rate everywhere?

In: Earth Science

9 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

It has to do with telling time based on the visible position of the sun. We tell our time relatively based on daylight hours; no matter where you go in the world (aside from the far North or I think south) you know it’ll always be day time at noon, sun coming up around 6, and going down around 7, obviously this changes based on where you are, and the the season, but you get the idea.

Because of that, we have to set somewhere as the 0 point, that we base all other time off of. Back when this was decided, they chose Greenwich, England. Now, we need to set times ahead of Greenwich, and behind it, because it’s our middle point, so there’s 24 hours in a day, we’ll extend the times zones 12 hours back, and 12 hours forward. This means that just as someone in GMT -12 is finishing their day, someone in GMT +12 is starting a new one, since they’re now 24 hours ahead. If it’s 1200, 06 October 2020 in greenwood, it’s 0000, 06 October 2020 in GMT -12, and it’s 0000, 07 October 2020 in GMT +12, because they’re 12 hours closer to facing the sun

[Relevant Johnny Harris](https://youtu.be/aBppb2quqkE)

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