Why are time zones not completely straight?

Answer 1

Some countries/states that are not very big would be split by a time boundary and it would not make sense for them to have different times from east to west, so they fix which of the two zones they are in and stick to it.

When railway lines were built in England they had to set one time across the country for time tabling purposes so that people would know when the train would come.

This caused some worry for people who lived further from London as midday (the point at which the sun is directly overhead) was a few minutes different for them than it was in London. The railway company had a hard struggle to convince people to change their clocks and watches to show London time (Greenwich Mean Time) rather than the time the sun told them it was. If they didn't change their watches to agree with the railway time there was a chance that they would miss the train!

Answer 2

most of the lines are straight except for the ones that pass through land masses. Think about it if one side of the line has 12:01AM and the other 11:01PM you can see where the problem lies on timing if they are on the same island - and the time differs.

Answer 3

This is just done to make it easier when traveling and living in general. For instance the lines will try to go around the borders of states and countries so that it seems more natural for the time to change. Also the lines will go around major cities so that one half of a city is not an hour ahead of the other half which would be very confusing, especially if you worked in the different time zone.

Answer 4

Time zones are often rerouted to follow the contours of geopolitical boundaries (such as international borders and state lines), which is a political decision rather than a scientific one. This can make individual time zones seem almost random in their size and scope.

One particularly noteworthy example is the International Date Line, which bends around Russia, Alaska, Kiribati (aka the Gilbert Islands), American Samoa, and most of Micronesia. In fact, it spends less than half its length on the 180° meridian itself.

Answer 5

There are largely 24 time zones around the world, same as 24 hours in the day. (Some Pacific Islands and other locations are in their own time zones that are not on hourly borders.

Generally the time zone boundaries, at least in the continental US, avoid major population areas. Time zones were first put into effect to help standardize railroad schedules. Before standardization of time zones, noon was when the sun was overhead...so different cities and towns might be 5, 10, 13, or some other difference between them. That made printing timetable schedules very confusing...

Answer 6

The reason they're not completely straight is that they try and follow not only natural but also political boundaries, such as country/state borders.

Answer 7

The time zones are not straight because it's easier to form them around the different regions then to have a city with two different times in two different places.

Answer 8

The border between two time zones is usually a political border (international, interstate, etc.).