How many time zone are there in the world?

Answer 1

If you consider a time zone to be all of the areas throughout which the time is one specific offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the total number of offsets used each year is 41. Only 36 of the 41 are always in use; the other five are used during only part of each year. The total number of time zones is 38 from 21st or 22nd March until 21st or 22nd September of every year, and it's 39 from 21st or 22nd September until 21st or 22nd March.

Answer 2

In simple terms, the world is divided into 24 time zones. There is one zone for each hour of the day. The circle of the earth is divided into 360 degrees of longitude, which are imaginary lines running between the North and South Poles. One twenty-fourth of 360o is 15 degrees. So each time zone is 15o wide.

The 24 different 'basic' time zones are:-

* The time zone which is at zero, i.e. aligned with UTC / Co-ordinated Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time / GMT). This time zone extends half an hour either side of the Greenwich (Prime) Meridian, which is at 0o and runs down through London, UK; France; Spain; and on down through Accra in Ghana, Africa. This time zone lies, fundamentally, between longitudes 7.5o E and 7.5o W. * Then there are 12 zones for the areas which are ahead(East) of UTC/GMT, by one hour, two hours etc., up to 12 hours ahead. e.g. The time in Jakarta, Indonesia, is UTC +8 hrs, and Fiji is UTC +12.

* Finally there are all the 11 '1 hour' zones that are 'behind' (West of) the zero zone. e.g. Los Angeles is UTC minus 8 hours.

HOWEVER! ... There are local variations from the absolute '15 degrees wide' time zone basis.

For example, some isolated islands adopt the time zone of an adjoining territory; some parts of the earth have time zones which are only half-an-hour different from a neighboring time zone e.g. The 'standard' time zone for Adelaide, Australia, is UTC +9:30, and 'Summer Time' is UTC +10:30.

There are also areas which have chosen to be UTC +13:00! such as Kiribati, Tonga and the Phoenix Islands. This is because their main trading countries are nearby but in a time zone that falls on a different day to the one they themselves 'logically' should be in!

So, to avoid finding themselves in tomorrow or yesterday compared with their neighbors, these islands and countries have chosen a more convenient time zone that enables them to be in the same 'day' as their trade partners.

Furthermore, the boundaries of many country and continental time zones, or parts of zones, do not necessarily strictly follow the lines of longitude, because in those places it would be impractical to divide their particular landmasses into multiple time zones.

* For example, all of Ireland is in the UTC/GMT (UK) time zone, even though the Western part of the island of Ireland is more than 7.5o away from the Greenwich Meridian. Iceland is also in the UK time zone, even though parts of it are 24 degrees West of Greenwich! * Similarly, on the other side of the earth, broadly following the 180o line of longitude, is the International Date Line. And, as it skirts down between Russia and Alaska and the islands of the Pacific Ocean it makes some very unusual detours, but all for very good reasons!

Main Time Zones:

UTC

+/- 0 London, Accra

+1 Berlin, Paris, Madrid

+2 Helsinki, Ankara, Athens

+3 Moscow, Nairobi, Kuwait

+4 Abu Dhabi, Dubai

+5 Islamabad, Karachi

+5:30 New Delhi

+6 Colombo, Dhaka

+7 Bangkok Jakarta

+8 Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore

+9 Tokyo, Seoul

+10 Sydney, Guam

+11 New Caledonia

+12 Auckland Fiji

-11 Midway, Samoa

-10 Hawaii, Tahiti

-9 Alaska, Anchorage

-8 Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver

-7 Denver

-6 Chicago, Mexico City

-5 Toronto, New York, Lima

-4 Caracas, Manaus

-3 San Paulo, Buenos Aires, and most of Greenland

-2 Fernando de Norhona

-1 Azores Some other Time Zones: * +3.5 Iran * +4.5 Afganistan * +5.5 India * +5.75 Nepal * +6.5 Myanmar * +11.5 Norfolk Island * -10.5 Cook Islands

SUMMARY: In theory there are, or 'should be', 24 'one hourly' time zones around the world. But in reality there are actually a few more, as you can see, because... (1) not all areas lay conveniently within the longitudinal '1 hour' bands, so their time zones may have a only a half-hour difference from that of a neighbouring country, or

(2) some countries/islands have close trade relationships with countries on the other side of the International Date Line. Therefore they use special time zones in order to align their days/dates more closely with their neighbors, rather than sticking to the time zone (day and date) that strict adherence to 'longitudinal demarcation' would require!

---- For more detailed informaton and time-zone map, see Related Links below.

Answer 3

there are 24 contnents in the world

Answer 4

40