Why does the earth have time zones?

Answer 1

The Earth has time zones because, in the olden days they decided to split the world in 24 pieces. London, England was were the King dedcided to start from there. London is the 12 hr starter.Pakistan is the 24 hr ender. Toronto is the -5 hr (behind London). Australia +5.

Answer 2

Because that is what mankind made up. It is also pretty logical because lets say the sun is rising in the west coast of America, it would probably be around 7:00 am, but somewhere in Europe or Asia it would probably be night and 7:00 am is the time I remember as the time the sun rises.

Answer 3

Because as the Earth turns, the Sun reaches its highest at different times.

In London the Sun is highest at midday, 12 o'clock. In Chicago it happens 6 hours afterwards because Chicago is at 90 degrees west longitude. Chicago needs another six hours for the Earth to turn so that the Sun reaches its highest point over there.

The people in Chicago don't want midday to happen at 6 pm so they choose to set their clocks 6 hours behind London clocks. That way, Chicago also has the Sun highest at 12 noon on their clocks.

The same thing happens at all other places on Earth so in theory there are 24 time zones, one for each 15 degrees of longitude. 24 x 15 is 360 degrees, one complete revolution.

In practice time zones are allocated by local political decisions.

Answer 4

Time zones exist to account for the Earth's rotation, which causes the cycle of day and night. By dividing the world into different time zones, we can standardize timekeeping across regions, making it easier for people to coordinate activities and schedules on a global scale.