Sir Sandford Fleming, a Canadian railway planner and engineer, outlined a plan for worldwide standard time in the late 1870s. Irregularities like those are part of the reason some make the argument we should move to a single Earth time instead of many time zones. The need for a standard time was felt most particularly in the United States and Canada, where several extensive railway routes passed through places that differed by several hours in local time. Though this has occasionally caused difficulties in Western provinces, the country officially lives on 'Beijing Time.'įor comparison, here's a time zone map with the countries shown:Ī map of time zones (with land). China spans what would normally be five hours of solar time - but you can see its outline on the map because it only uses one time zone.All Daylight Saving Time (DST) changes are automatically calculated. Sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset times and digital creative timepieces. That has, however, caused some states to protest and follow their own time zones. Time zone converters, world clock, meeting planners and shareable event time. India is visible because despite its size, the entire nation has adopted Indian Standard Time since gaining independence from Britain.Moving to the center, you can see the outline of Argentina, because it uses the same time zone as eastern Brazil (unlike Bolivia and Paraguay, which sit above Argentina and use the time zone used in western Brazil).Politically, it makes sense that Alaska time would be the same everywhere, but in practice it can be confusing, since the solar time can vary two to three hours from the clock time.

That huge jag in the top left corner is the adjustment for Alaska, which is one single time zone.Still, that idea has led to some quirks that are visible in the map above: Find World Map Time Zones stock images in HD and millions of other royalty-free stock photos, 3D objects, illustrations and vectors in the Shutterstock. By the 1900s, the idea was widely accepted and practiced. The idea for a worldwide time-zone system gained currency at the International Meridian Conference in 1884. Time zones were meant to solve the problem of different solar times around the world (solar times are what time it feels like based on the sun's position in the sky). The map captures the significance embracing standardized time zones. There are 9 time zones in the USA: Hawaii (UTC -10:00), Alaska (UTC-09:00), Pacific (UTC-08:00), Mountain (UTC-07:00), Central (UTC-06:00), Eastern (UTC-05:00). It highlights just how unusual these artificial boundaries can be: Pheils map of world time zones on a polar projection. Branden Rishel created this map showing only the world's time zones - without any of the land underneath.

Time zones world map