Each region is defined by a time zone that tells the official time that is used by different industries and the general public in the conduct of their transactions and operations. Traditionally, the assignment of time zones will follow the geographical boundaries as a way to ensure the smooth transactions between companies and commercial entities. There are currently 40 zones available using the Coordinated Universal Time. Some countries or regions make use of the daylight saving time that involves adjusting the clock by at least an hour.
History of Timekeeping
In the past, the public made use of the solar time through the use of the sundial or Sun Clock. In the 19th century, the use of mechanical clocks has become popular. This was the time when the mean solar time was used. This is different from the apparent solar time. It was in 1875 that the Greenwich Mean Time or the GMT was implemented and was primarily used by sea travelers. But the use of this time became problematic with the development and use of railroads and trains. Different regions will have different times; sometimes the difference is by four minutes.
Because of this issue, the need to standardize time was realized. It was in December 1, 1847 that the standardization began. The first company that adopted the system was Great Western Railway. The changes in time monitoring increased when innovations and the new technologies in telecommunications were introduced. New Zealand was the first country (then a colony of Britain) to implement a standard time. If in other regions the timekeeping was standardized, it was a different story in the United States. Different railroads will have their own set of time, thus contributing to the confusion. To address this situation, a new solution was introduced by Charles F. Dowd. He introduced the four recommended time zones. New zones were created that will follow different times including Pacific, Mountain, Eastern and Central.
Time Zones Implemented In Different Parts of the World
For the record, the first person who thought about the potential of time zones was Quirico Filopanti. He was the first person who conceived the idea for the 24-hour zones and the need to use a universal time that can be used in telegraphy and the study of stars and planets. Another person who introduced the idea of time zone was Sir Sandford Fleming. Through the years, a standardized time zone was designed and it was in 1900s that most parts of the world maintain standardized time zones. Right now, World Time Zones that can work together with Atomic Clock Sync. Since different countries and regions will have their own different time zones, it is now recommended to make use of Time Converter and websites like TimeAndDate.com. There are now different adjustments to the time zones followed by different regions. For example, there’s the concept of daylight saving time. Though this can work with Perpetual Calendar, the main idea of DST is that the time will be tweaked by an hour. This practice was first started in 1907.
Time Zone Resources
- Calendar for any year
- Clockworks: From Sundials to the Atomic Second - A presentation by Britannica on the history of time keeping.
- Current Local Times for North America
- Current Time in 1000 places
- Date and Time calculators
- Earth and Moon viewer . You can view either a map of the Earth showing the day and night regions at this moment, or view the Earth from the Sun, the Moon, the night side of the Earth, above any location on the planet specified by latitude, longitude and altitude, from a satellite in Earth orbit, or above various cities around the globe. Earth - Moon
- Local Times Around the World - This guide attempts to list all of the world’s countries, and many of its islands. Times consider Daylight Savings Time.
- Printable Calendar - create a calendar for any month of the current year, or print a twelve month calendar for any of the next ten years
- Stop Watch - an online stopwatch [use preferences to change the appearance]
- Sunclock from World Time Zone
- Sundial - from Canon’s Bubble Jet Printer Creative Park
- Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times around the World
- Time Dilation Model (relativity) - The applet demonstrates that the clock in the spaceship goes more slowly than the two clocks of the system in which Earth and Pluto are motionless.
- Timeticker - The exact time on the world. See times by city or time zone. A really neat multimedia site created with Flash by Martin Zwernemann. You need Shockwave to see this.
- Time Zones of the World - a printable map in color
- Timer – an on-line countdown (or up) timer
- U S Naval Observatory Time Service Department - The Official Source of Time for the Department of Defense and the Standard of Time for the United States
- A Walk Through Time - The Evolution of Time Measurement through the Ages (A NIST Physics Laboratory Presentation)
- What Time is it Around the World? - (interactive time zone map) click on cities for time or highlight an entire time zone
- What Time is it Now? – current time, weather, and a map of your location, plus links to other cities and countries as well as a database of information about countries
- World Clock - Current time is not all that you can keep up with at this site. Watch changes in the world population, temperature of the earth, barrels of oil pumped and much, much more.
- World Clocks - Time Check Page (30 clocks from around the world)
- WorldTime is a service featuring an interactive world atlas, information on local time as well as sunrise and sunset times in several hundred cities, and a database of public holidays worldwide. This site provides an interactive globe which shows current day and night on the Earth.
- World Time Server provides the most accurate current local times of any world clock on the Internet. The server makes real time adjustments for Daylight Saving Time. No matter what time zone a country or city is located in, this site is an excellent resource for determining any time, anywhere.
- World Time Zone map with current times – an interactive site
- World Time Zone Maps from Koala.net
- Click here for Customizable Online Timer Page This is a cool little tool. If you don’t like the name “Timer”, click on the word “Timer” and rename it.
- Official U. S. Time - Select a time zone to see the correct time