World time now map. What is a time zone

When traveling around the world, people inevitably find themselves at different times of the day - this is due to the movement of the planet around its axis. Russia is very big country covering an impressive area. For greater convenience, its area was divided into a certain number of zones corresponding to the number of time zones in Russia.

What determines time on Earth

Our planet, as you know, has a spherical shape. In 24 hours, it manages to make a complete revolution around its axis, that is, 360 °. Accordingly, in one hour the Earth rotates around its axis by 15 °.

In different corners the globe people meet sunrise or sunset at different times. In places located on different meridians, at the same moment, the hands of the clock will show different times of the day. For example, in Yakutsk it will be 21 hours, while in Yekaterinburg - only 17.

But at the same time, on the same meridian throughout its entire length from the North to South Pole time of day will be the same. Such time is called local or solar.

However, using local time is extremely inconvenient: it makes the development of relations between countries very difficult. To eliminate this discomfort, astronomers have proposed to introduce a standard time system around the world.

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As a result, the whole planet was divided along the meridians into 24 belts, each of which includes 15 ° longitude. Thus, the time in each time zone differs from the time in neighboring zones by 1 hour.

The zero time zone is considered to be the center of which runs the Greenwich meridian. He is also the 24th in a row. Time zones are counted from zero from west to east.

Rice. 1. Reference point - Greenwich meridian.

Time zones of Russia

The length of Russia from west to east is very large, and covers 11 time zones. Capital Russian Federation- Moscow - is in the second time zone, and, say, Chukotka autonomous region- in the twelfth.

Moscow time serves as a reference point for determining local time anywhere in Russia. The difference is calculated by the number of full hours: minutes and seconds are the same in all time zones.

In order to avoid confusion on the territory of Russia, all work of river, sea, air and rail transport, as well as various kinds of communications, are carried out only in Moscow time.

Rice. 2. Time zones of Russia on the map.

For greater convenience in Russia, the second and eleventh time zones were combined into one. For this reason, within the Russian Federation, they meet not eleven, but ten times.

It is not difficult to independently calculate the zone time of each individual settlement. It is enough to know the boundaries of its location and the number of the time zone in which it is located. For example, if in Moscow, located in the second zone, it is 8 am, then in Yekaterinburg, located in the fourth zone, it will be 10 am, since the difference with Moscow will be 2 hours.

Table by city (time difference)

Daylight Savings Time

In 1930, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars throughout Russia, the clock hands were moved one hour ahead of the relative standard time. The country lived in this mode for more than 50 years according to the so-called "maternity" time. It was believed that the change to a new time was installed in order to save electricity. The return to seasonal time only happened in 1981.

In the same year, summer time was introduced on the territory of the USSR. In the period from April 1 to October 1, clocks throughout the country were set one hour ahead. The official reason for this transition is the rational use of daylight hours and energy savings.

Rice. 3. Physiologists are against the transition to a new time.

However, physiologists are sure that such jumps in time have a very negative effect on people's well-being. For any organism, the transition to a new time is stressful, and it takes some time to life cycles adapted to the new conditions.

The transition to daylight saving time in the Russian Federation was canceled in 2011.

What have we learned?

When studying one of the topics in the 8th grade geography program, we learned how many time zones there are in Russia. We found that their number of time zones corresponds to the number of meridians, and the difference in time in each neighboring zone is exactly one hour. Moscow time is considered the main time in Russia, according to which all types of transport operate, communications are established throughout the country.

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From the moment the theory of the sphericity of the Earth and its rotation around the Sun and its own axis ceased to be disputed, it became clear that the entire surface of our planet cannot be illuminated sunlight simultaneously. Time of day changes to earth's surface consistently and gradually (which, in fact, is a change in the time zone). Astronomical time depends on at what moment the Sun is at its zenith, and this does not happen at the same time at different points on the earth.

AT old days, there was no problem in the astronomical difference in time of day. In any locality world, the time was determined by the Sun: when it is at its highest point, it is noon. Initially, the main city clock was checked against this moment. Nobody thought about any time zone. And no one was particularly worried about the fact that between several fairly close cities, the difference in time could be 15 minutes.

However, under the influence of technological progress, times and life have changed. “Discord” eventually became a real headache, in particular for those who used rail transport. Since standard time zones did not yet exist, in order to exactly match the schedule, it was necessary to move the chronometer hand by 4 minutes with the intersection of each meridian. Yes, it's impossible to keep track of it!

Railway workers also faced an even more difficult problem - dispatch services could not really calculate the time the train was at a particular point of movement. And this already smelled not only of delays, but of collisions and train crashes.

The solution is found - the creation of time zones

The idea to put things in order with time synchronization first came up with the Englishman William Hyde Wollaston, better known for his discoveries in the field of metal chemistry. The solution was very simple - the chemist proposed to establish a single time zone throughout the UK - along the Greenwich meridian. The railroad immediately seized on this idea, already in 1840 they began to switch to a single "London" time. In 1852, they began to regularly transmit accurate time signals by telegraph.

However, the whole country switched to Greenwich Mean Time only in 1880, when the relevant law was issued.

The British idea was adopted almost immediately by the Americans. However, there was one catch - the territory of the United States is many times larger than the British Isles, and in the states it is simply impossible to introduce a single time zone throughout the country. Therefore, in 1883 the country was divided into 4 zones, in which the time differed by an hour from the neighboring one. So, in fact, the first four time zones appeared - Pacific, Eastern, Mountain and Central.

Despite the fact that the railroads were already using standard time, many cities refused to translate their clocks in accordance with the new decree. Detroit was the last to do so in 1916.

Even at the dawn of the time zone system, the "father" of Canadian railways Sanford Fleming began to promote the theory that the entire planet should be divided into 24 time zones. The idea was rejected by politicians and even scientists out of the blue, it was considered a utopia.

However, already in 1884, at a special international conference in Washington, the division of the Earth into 24 belts did happen. However, it must be said that some countries voted against such a decision, in particular, the Russian representative, the head of the Struve Pulkovo Observatory. We joined the world time system only in 1919.

Time zones of Russia

The image below shows the current map of Russia's time zones:

Planet Earth moves in orbit around the Sun, which heats the planet, provides the necessary light to plants and living beings that depend on photosynthesis. But the Sun from time to time hides behind the horizon, then reappears. And even the day when it shines is not the same everywhere. In one place of the planet the Sun is at its zenith, in another it tends to the horizon.

The planet's time zone system

To accurately record time, mankind had to be divided into time zones. These are zones that correspond to 1/24 (by the number of hours in a day) of the length of the parallel at a particular latitude. Less common are zones with a difference of thirty minutes in relation to the neighboring zone. Below is a table of world time zones and the difference with Moscow. The reference point is the time zone of the Greenwich Observatory in the UK.

In Russia, as big country There are eleven such time zones in the world. The countdown starts from western point, Kaliningrad, continues to Moscow, where the time difference with Greenwich Mean Time is three hours. In Magadan, the easternmost time zone, the difference with Greenwich is already twelve hours.

Overview of Time Differences in Time Zones

The table of the difference between the time zones of the world and Moscow will show how long distances on Earth and how different the time of day can be even within the same country. Each time zone has its own name. In the table of time zones of the world, taking into account, time zones are also reflected, where the time difference is not an even hour, but half. This is due to the historical features of the borders of states and the accounting of time.

The line where the dates change

As can be seen from the table of the world time zone difference with Moscow, there are also such subtleties as a 24-hour time difference in areas that are several kilometers from each other. For example, residents of the Magadan region, who have twelve o'clock on the clock, can look through binoculars through binoculars on the first of January, as it will be the thirty-first of December in Alaska. Between time zones with time UTC + 12 and UTC-12 there is a line delimiting dates. In the table of the difference between the time zones of the world and Moscow, the deviation from Moscow time is +8 and -15 hours, respectively. Traveling through from west to east, you can get into the day already lived, while returning from east to west, you can get into the future for one day.

Time zone features

Theoretically, time zones should be even, like the meridians of the Earth. But it's not. You cannot force half of a city or region to live according to one time, and half - according to another. For a unified holistic economic and territorial system, synchronous work is important, therefore, within the framework of small states, in the ocean, the time zone either expands or narrows, repeating the administrative boundaries of the territories. In addition to such deviations, there is a separate group of territories where the time deviation from the neighboring time zone is thirty or even forty-five minutes. These zones are also indicated in the table of the world time zone difference with Moscow. Such time zones have developed historically, they are not related to the astronomy of a particular region.

In addition to regions with their own non-standard standard time, above 60 degrees north latitude, time zones do not follow natural formal boundaries, since they are less populated and in these latitudes the lighting conditions are not the same as in Moscow. There are already beginning phenomena such as polar day and polar night.

Time zones of Russia: features

From the table of the difference in time between the time zones of the world and Moscow, it can be seen that Russia occupies a significant number of time zones, as many as eleven. Despite reforms and time zone adjustments, their number will always be eleven, as this is an astronomical necessity. But time zone boundaries are constantly changing. AT modern Russia they are tied to economically closed administrative formations, regions, territories, for which it is important to work in a single temporary space. Time zones are not just lines on a map. Compliance with standard time when calculating the savings in energy resources gives enormous numbers. If the time zone of the Moscow region is moved even by an hour, then the whole country will lose billions of rubles. Because the indicated difference in world time zones with Moscow in the table is just useful information. AT modern world dials with Moscow time hang on all world exchanges for the correct synchronization of trading on these exchanges.

Why you need to know the time of another time zone

In modern Russia, which is closely integrated into the world economy, knowledge of time zones is important in every industry. Tables of the difference between the time zones of the world and Moscow for some professions are a reference book. Numerous purchasing managers working with Chinese suppliers understand that calling Shanghai at the end of the working day in Moscow is silly, since it is already late at night in China. And calling the USA at the beginning of the Moscow working day is also not worth it. There are many amazing things on planet Earth, and such things as time zones, date lines, etc. only emphasize the uniqueness and complexity of life dictated by global ones, such as the movement of the Earth relative to the Sun and the height of geographic latitude, which underlie calculation of time by all mankind.

I sit at home, get sick - and get out of bed by lunchtime. It’s probably stupid to complain here, but still I want to rewind time a little back or forward in order to get up with the sunrise. And do everything in the world!

So, in Moscow now 15:00. And in the US, people are just waking up:

In general, there are as many as six time zones. This is almost half as much as in Russia. Well, about the beginning of the awakening, I also exaggerated a little. The thing is that the average American at 6 am is already fresh and alert, like a cucumber. And even at 5 in the morning, when only the most inveterate larks rise in our country, people are already beginning to appear on American streets.

There are several reasons for such a regime: firstly, the notorious American love for work. Here, a career for many is akin to a personal deity. Americans know how to have fun and relax, but they clearly know when it's time to pursue a career.

The second reason is more early sunrises sun, especially in winter. We still have a terrible darkness at 6 in the morning, and there it is already quite light.

The third is related to the peculiarities of settlement. For the norm to live not in the most major city, and in its vicinity. Accordingly, while you leave the kids to study, while you eat, until you get to work, you have already spent several hours.