The correct countdown is very important in the modern world, when the rhythm of life has increased significantly. But the difficulty lies in the presence of different time zones - after all, when communicating with people from other parts of the planet, it is important to have some kind of common reference point. For this, world coordinated time is needed. But how did people come to such a system?
What is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)?
In the modern world, the greatest universality is valued - a single currency, language, etc. But it is simply impossible to introduce a single time zone, because when in one hemisphere it is day, in the other - night. In addition, there is the so-called local solar time, going according to how the stars move across the sky from east to west. But time zones must be somehow connected with each other, have a certain reference point. For this, there is UTC - Coordinated Universal Time. It is from him that the states repel, tuning the clock on their territory. But how did such a system come about?
History of the introduction of a single standard
Initially, humanity determined time by the Sun. The moment when it passed its highest point was taken at noon. It is on this principle that the sundial worked . But such a method was not accurate, in addition, the development of society required greater universality. Over time, when new lands were discovered, and people realized that it was necessary to enter time zones and connect them together primarily for navigation purposes, the GSM (Greenwich Mean Time) system was invented, so called because the meridian according to which time was counted, passed through the observatory in Greenwich.
By the way, before the introduction of this standard, different countries used their zero points. As a rule, the middle meridians in this case passed through local observatories, in Paris - Paris, in Russia - Pulkovo, etc. But the lack of a single standard was inconvenient. And in 1884, the Greenwich Meridian was taken for zero. It not only checks the clock, but also determines the geographical coordinates - longitude.
Now this standard is called UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time. Unlike GMT, it is checked with the atomic clock, and once every 2-3 years, the scale is amended in the form of an "extra" second. This is done in order to bring the time closer to the astronomical one.
Time zone designation
Time in other meridians is counted from Greenwich. For simplicity, it is designated as the difference with it, that is, UTC + 1, UTC-8, etc. By no means always meridians are used to distinguish time zones, since in some cases this would be somewhat inconvenient. This, by the way, has caused some very interesting features of the countdown in different countries. But this will be discussed later.
Using
So, when it became clear that such a coordinated time, it is worth discussing how it is used in the modern world. Firstly, the zero meridian is still relevant for navigation - both in the ocean and in the air. Secondly, globalization has left its mark on the need for a single countdown. Conference calls between people across the globe are scheduled by UTC.
By the way, in some territories time zones do not actually exist. We are talking about the Arctic and Antarctic, where time is conditionally taken as UTC + 0. In fact, researchers at polar stations can count the hours as they like. The same applies to astronauts working in terrestrial orbit.
Interesting Facts
The system, including Coordinated Universal Time, took quite a while to form, resulting in quite curious features.
- The abbreviation UTC does not have an official decryption. In 1970, when this standard was introduced, the options were TUC (Temps Universel Coordonné) and CUT (Coordinated Universal Time). In the end, it was decided to stay at a neutral UTC.
- Novosibirsk was founded on two banks of the river, exactly along which the hour meridian passes. And for quite a long time two times worked in the city. Before the construction of the first bridge in 1955, this did not cause any particular inconvenience, because the two parts of Novosibirsk were practically not connected to each other. But in 1958, the city switched to a single countdown.
- Logically, the biggest time difference between two points on the globe should be 24 hours. But in reality there are 26 time zones. In the Pacific Ocean, two island states are relatively close to each other: American Samoa and the Line archipelago. The difference between the time on them is 25 hours. It happened because Line Islands, previously owned by the United Kingdom, counted their time from the Australian, and it turned out UTC + 14. And Samoa has UTC-11, in accordance with the difference with continental America.
- In some regions of Australia, horizontal time zones sometimes appear. This is due to the fact that not all states are switching to winter time.
- Not always the difference with Greenwich is an equal number of hours. In Nepal, UTC + 5: 45, in some cities in Australia +8: 45, and on the Chatham archipelago in New Zealand +12: 45.