In all projects where I had to work (including the current one), there were problems with time zones. Not all spears have been broken and will be broken. Perhaps we should abolish these belts altogether? An advance for those who will read.
The basis of the modern system of time zones is the universal coordinated time, on which the time of all zones depends. In order not to enter local solar time for each value of longitude, the Earth's surface is conditionally divided into 24 time zones, local time at the boundaries of which changes by exactly 1 hour. Geographic time zones are limited to meridians passing 7,5 Β° east and west of the average meridian of each zone, and in the zone of the Greenwich meridian, universal time is in effect. However, in reality, in order to maintain a single time within one administrative territory or group of territories, the boundaries of the belts do not coincide with the theoretical boundary meridians.
The actual number of time zones is more than 24, since in a number of countries the rule of the integer difference in hours from universal time is violated - local time is a multiple of half an hour or a quarter of an hour. In addition, there are territories near the date line in the Pacific Ocean that use the time of additional zones: +13 and even +14 hours.
In some places, some time zones disappear - the time of these zones is not used, which is typical for sparsely populated regions located above a latitude of approximately 60 Β°, for example: Alaska, Greenland, northern regions of Russia. At the North and South Poles, the meridians converge at one point, so the concepts of time zones and local solar time lose their meaning there. It is believed that universal time should be used at the poles, however, for example, at Amundsen-Scott station (South Pole), New Zealand time applies.
Before the introduction of the time zone system, each locality used its own local solar time, determined by the geographic longitude of a particular locality or the nearest large city. The system of standard time (or, as it was customary to call it in Russia, standard time) appeared at the end of the XNUMXth century as an attempt to put an end to such confusion. The need to introduce such a standard became especially relevant with the development of the railway network - if train schedules were drawn up according to the local solar time of each city, then this could cause not only inconvenience and confusion, but also accidents. The first time standardization projects appeared and were implemented in Great Britain.
How did it happen that people complicated their lives and, in some countries, what seemed to be the right idea was brought to the point of absurdity?
Of course, the unification of time throughout the planet is correct. The planet from previously disparate pieces is becoming more and more integral. Yes, there are still nation-states, but the economy itself, the migration of the population have become global.
However, let's see if the time unification solution that currently exists on the planet is the best solution?
As before, people all over the world have problems - from everyday life and work to technical ones. The confusion over time continues to bring complexity for people who travel between different time zones, doing business in different time zones. And the support of the infrastructure for servicing the current unified time model is complicated by the presence of various zones, transitions between them, as well as the transition to summer and winter time. ?
More clearly about the complexity of the modern concept of dividing the planet into time zones can be seen in these images:
As we can see, almost all of Europe lives in the same time zone. That is, this is a political decision, not a strictly theoretical division into zones.
But already moving from Poland to neighboring Belarus, we will have to move the clock not 1, but immediately 2 hours ahead.
There is a more interesting example in Samoa, which skipped December 2011 in 30 to be closer in time to Australia. Thus, due to political reasons, a 24-hour difference with the neighboring islands of American Samoa was created.
But that's not all the complications. You may not know, but India, Sri Lanka, Iran, Afghanistan, and Myanmar use a half-hour offset from UTC, and Nepal is the only country that uses a 45-minute offset.
But the oddities don't end there. In addition to these 7 states, time zones go from +14 to -12.
And that is not all. Time zones are given names. For example, "standard European", "Atlantic". There are more than 200 such names in total (it's time to exclaim - "Karl !!!").
At the same time, we still do not touch upon the problem of SELECTIVE transition of countries to daylight saving time.
Immediately the question is - is it possible to do something, is there any solution?
As often happens in such cases, it is enough just to go beyond the usual perception of the world to find a solution - why don't we go further in unifying time across the planet and abolish time zones altogether?
That is, the planet continues to focus on Greenwich, but at the same time everyone lives in the same time (in the same time zone). For example, in Moscow, working hours will be from 11 am to 20 pm (Greenwich Mean Time). In London, from 10 a.m. to 19 p.m. And so on.
What is the difference in essence what numbers will be on the clock? In fact, it's just an indicator! After all, these are conventions.
For example, a developer from Moscow can easily arrange a call with a team from the Valley - 15:14 GMT (at this time, a developer from Moscow knows that it is now light, and the team from the Valley is still working). Let's say this example is not expressive, since we, developers working in different time zones, are used to converting time. But isn't it more profitable for the economy itself to switch to such a unified time? How many software related bugs will go away? How many software developer hours will we cut? How much energy will be saved due to unnecessary miscalculations of different times? Will countries not need to make life difficult for their citizens with such strange hourly offsets as +13, +3, +4/XNUMX from GMT? How much easier will life be for everyone?
A common question is: can such a system work?
Answer: She is already working in China. (and almost all of Europe is in one belt, as mentioned above).
The territory of China stretches across 5 time zones, but China has been living on a single time since 1949. It's just that people in the cities have shifted their schedule.
PS When writing the article, materials from , articles "", analytical report "", international conference ""
Only registered users can participate in the survey. , you are welcome.
What do you think, colleagues?
-
48,0%I support59
-
25,2%Difficult to say31
-
26,8%I do not support33
123 users voted. 19 users abstained.
Source: habr.com