Why where time zones invented?

Answer 1

An official would need to know what time a train was arriving at one station so he could send another train to the other station. Also, people were becoming confused because in the 1800s, people had local times, so if a train arrived at 8:30 am one place's local time, it could be 10:30 am at another station's local time!

Answer 2

There is twenty four time zones in the world which are based on the fifteen degree increments of longitude. This is because the earth takes twenty four hours to rotate and there are 360 degrees of longitude so 360 divided by 24 equals 15. So the sun moves across 15 degrees of longitude in an hour. They were designed to better coordinate noon as the point in the day when the sun is at its highest point in the sky, which is what our time zones revolve around... I hope this answers your question!

Reference

About.com: Geography - Offset Time Zones. http:/geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/offsettimezones.htm.

Answer 3

Until the mid-1800s, cities and towns kept their own time. For each of

them noon was the exact time when the Sun reached its highest point

in the sky. This meant that when the clocks in one town read exactly

12:00, the clocks in a town 50 miles to the east might have read 12:03.

Answer 4

Time zones were invented to standardize and simplify timekeeping across regions that have different local times. This helps with scheduling activities, transportation timetables, and communication systems on a global scale by ensuring that everyone is using the same reference time.

Answer 5

Until long-distance communication developed, there really was no need to coordinate your local time with that of the next town, let alone with another continent.