Definition of Time Zone

To better understand nature and all its phenomena, human beings have created endless devices that very adequately fulfill their objective. Among others we find the time zones, artificial designs that are arranged on a map to organize the schedules and the different moments of the day as well as the time distance between the territories of the planet.

Understanding what a time zone is: an important element in our daily lives

Although we rarely stop to think about this, the reality is that time zones are an extremely useful creation for our lives. Because? Planet Earth, like all the other planets in the solar system, rotates on its axis permanently and this movement is what gives way from day to night. While it also moves around the Sun (a movement that gives rise to the change of seasons), the movement of rotation means that when it is day in one part of the world, it is night in the other part because at that moment the planet is left backs to the Sun. This change is part of our daily lives but it was not until the development of capitalism that the human being needed to know exactly the time of day.

Time zone structure and layout

If we take into account that until the Middle Ages the change in the time of a day was measured with sundials that were not very accurate (since they marked periods of time) and that with Modernity the notion of clock as we know it today arises, It is understandable that as time passes, the human being has needed to control and know more accurately the passage of time.

The time zones were designed that allowed dividing the planisphere map of the Earth into 24 different time zones, each one representing one of the 24 hours that a day occupies. In this way, each time zone meant that a region of the planet, in a vertical line, showed a time and so on with respect to the other regions. This was established from the Greenwich meridian which crosses London and which was taken as the zero parameter from which to start counting. In fact, there is a small building in London where the passage of this meridian is visually arranged.

Why are time zones useful?

Having graphically arranged the different schedules that the planet runs according to a region is an artifice created by man that is very useful for our lives. First of all, it allows us to locate ourselves within a time slot depending on our location on the map. Here it must be taken into account that time zones are not perfect vertical lines like meridians, but have been adapted to the different borders in order to ensure that a country has the least possible variety of timetables.

The usefulness of the time zone has to do especially with being able to calculate the time distance between the place where I am located and any other point on the planet. This is calculated from the Greenwich meridian, to which you must add hours if you go to its west and subtract hours if you go to its east.

Photos: Fotolia. WavebreakMediaMicro – tiero

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