Thursday, October 11, 2007

Time and It’s Zones

In today’s world we live in a mathematically based society. Everyday people use mathematically based schedules that guide them through their day. Some people use math as at work, around the house, or even at the playground. Techniqually everyone uses math, whether they are good at it or not; some people actually use math and do not even know that they are using an ancient method used by everyone on the globe. Time is a universal form of mathematics. It is universal because no matter what country a person is from, what language they speak, or what level of math they know, clocks are all read the same exact way.
Some people may ask, “Well how come in different places, there are different times, and time zones?”. A time zone is a region of the Earth that has adopted the same standard time, usually referred to as the local time. Most adjacent time zones are exactly one hour apart. Standard time zones can be defined by geometrically subdividing the Earth's surface into 24 sections, and each section is 15 degrees of longitude apart. The local time in neighbouring zones would differ by one hour.
A common misconception is that, if a person gets on a plane and travels to a country far away and misses his or her normal “standard time” hours in flight, that they have some how been nonexistant for several hours. Another common misconception is that for instance if a person travels to from New York to Las Angeles, which has a 3 hour time difference that they have miraculously traveled back in time. Neither of these theories are true. When traveling a person is in a plane which is traveling faster than the earths roation, thus catching up or passing the sun, which changes the time of day in whichever part of the world that perticular person has traveled to.

1 comment:

Catherine said...

This realt neat that the time zones are lined up like this. i never knew this, and I think it is really interesting. This is a great post!