Why don't we use local solar time instead of time zones in our everyday lives Would it be easy to know what time your favorite TV program starts?

Answer 1

Actually, up until somewhere in the 1800's, they used solar time. But, because the solar time for one location is not the same for another, come the train, they had to rely on something else, so they adopted mean time, or time told by the mean Sun, a fictitious object, that moves at a uniform rate. The mean Sun moves at the average rate of the Sun.

To answer your other question, yes and no. Again, your solar time is different from that of the company that broadcasts the TV program, so to know when your favorite TV program came on would require some calculating, like so:

1) Subtract the longitude of the broadcasting company from your longitude.

2) Divide the answer by 15 to get about however many hours it would take for the Sun to go from your longitude to the broadcasting company's longitude.

3) Add the time difference to your solar time.

As you can see, having a clock to look at to tell you when your favorite TV program comes on is easier.

Answer 2

Using local solar time instead of time zones would be impractical in our everyday lives because it would result in significant discrepancies in time across relatively short distances. This would make coordination and scheduling difficult, especially in the context of global communication and transportation. Knowing when a TV program starts would become challenging as it would depend on the specific location and its solar time, causing confusion and inconvenience for viewers.