1 time Zone !

[Brainteaserfan]

Ummm.....no. There are no towns that are in between 2 time zones since there are no gaps between time zones. Towns that lie on the line that separate 2 time zones are technically in 2 time zones.

 

BTW, disadvantages of the current system are not automatically advantages of a new system. What "advantages" are there in the new system?

To the 1st part: True. That's what I meant to say.

 

To the 2nd: disadvantages of the current system that do not happen in another system are advantages of the other system over the current one.

[Ophiolite]

For starters, some towns are in between two time zones, making it difficult, and there are lots who regularly travel between them. It, IMO, would eliminate much confusion.

Rubbish. I regularily travel to the US, the Middle East and the Far East. I don't want to have to say to myself, "aha, it's 3:00 am, and I'm in Dubai, so it must be just before lunch". If it's 3:00 am I want to know it's time to roll over and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. The current system allows me to do just that. Things that take place at certain periods in the day occur at that time, more or less, whether I am in London, Houston or KL. The system ain't broke, though this proposal would make it so.

[CaptainPanic]

First of all, I think we can all agree that humans are best awake during the day (when it's light), and asleep in the night (in the dark). Sunlight influences our bodies in multiple ways, and light is important to be healthy. Also, personally, I happen to like sunlight. It makes me happy.

So, from that we (hopefully) can agree that despite our global economy, we're not all going to be in the office at the same time. Most people will want to be up during daylight. And therefore, I think it's convenient to have time zones. Now, I can just look at the time zones, and make an estimate when someone will be in office. If the whole world has 1 time zone, I am utterly clueless when someone far away will be in the office... We would still have maps like this one, saying that despite that we're in the same time zone, there is an offset for office hours.

 

So, we would be in the same time zone, but we would all have different office hours. And that would mean that effectively we've progressed nothing at all.

 

As John Cuthber already wrote: UTC already exists for important global systems that need 1 global time. And it happens to be (almost?) the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which we also have chosen as the +0 hrs time zone.

 

We can always adapt to new definitions (of almost everything!). It's just language. But what's the point?

 

Edited to include links and fix typos.

Edited August 1, 2011 by CaptainPanic

[Brainteaserfan]

Rubbish. I regularily travel to the US, the Middle East and the Far East. I don't want to have to say to myself, "aha, it's 3:00 am, and I'm in Dubai, so it must be just before lunch". If it's 3:00 am I want to know it's time to roll over and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. The current system allows me to do just that. Things that take place at certain periods in the day occur at that time, more or less, whether I am in London, Houston or KL. The system ain't broke, though this proposal would make it so.

You are on the edge of a time zone. You have a meeting at 3. You look at your watch, it says 1:45. However you are in a different time zone. So it would be a step to convert for you. Also, if a concert had flyers out, "concert at 4", and you are in a different time zone, the concert might be halfway over by the time you got there. Third case scenerio. I send an email to a friend in china for a video chat at 2. They think that I meant their time so I am awakened in the middle of the night.

 

Also, as trade, travel, and communication improve, IMO, 1 time zone will become even more useful.

 

Edit: ps, sorry for the short sentences.

Edited August 1, 2011 by Brainteaserfan

[CaptainPanic]

You are on the edge of a time zone. You have a meeting at 3. You look at your watch, it says 1:45. However you are in a different time zone. So it would be a step to convert for you. Also, if a concert had flyers out, "concert at 4", and you are in a different time zone, the concert might be halfway over by the time you got there. Third case scenerio. I send an email to a friend in china for a video chat at 2. They think that I meant their time so I am awakened in the middle of the night.

 

Also, as trade, travel, and communication improve, IMO, 1 time zone will become even more useful.

 

Edit: ps, sorry for the short sentences.

Nonsense.

You pick 3 cases where you make the same mistake 3 times. You forget to mention which time zone.

 

We can make it all 1 time zone, but instead of having different time zones, we would have different Office-Hours-zones, and different dinner-time-zones.... and we would be in exactly the same situation as now.

 

... unless we would all get up at the same time worldwide, and go to sleep at the same time... but then I want to live in the part of the world where we get up at sunrise, and go to sleep at sunset. You can live on the dark side. Where do you live? I'm in Europe, which is by definition already close to GMT / UTC. Americans will have to get up around what is now midnight, and work through the night. Chinese will have to get up in the afternoon and work well into the evening. And Europeans can get up at sunrise, and work during the day. Excellent idea. I have a funny feeling some Americans and Asians will object though.

[imatfaal]

Brainteaser - most of your problems are easily solved by the addition of three letters after the time; and that's exactly what we do.

[swansont]

Also, as trade, travel, and communication improve, IMO, 1 time zone will become even more useful.

Nothing prevents you from using UTC if you find it useful. But a standard is something for wide adoption, and if it's not useful for most (or even detrimental for some) then it's not likely to be adopted.

[Brainteaserfan]

Nonsense.

You pick 3 cases where you make the same mistake 3 times. You forget to mention which time zone.

 

We can make it all 1 time zone, but instead of having different time zones, we would have different Office-Hours-zones, and different dinner-time-zones.... and we would be in exactly the same situation as now.

 

... unless we would all get up at the same time worldwide, and go to sleep at the same time... but then I want to live in the part of the world where we get up at sunrise, and go to sleep at sunset. You can live on the dark side. Where do you live? I'm in Europe, which is by definition already close to GMT / UTC. Americans will have to get up around what is now midnight, and work through the night. Chinese will have to get up in the afternoon and work well into the evening. And Europeans can get up at sunrise, and work during the day. Excellent idea. I have a funny feeling some Americans and Asians will object though.

I don't understand how which time zone matters. I'm talking about our current system, if you lived close to a line.

 

I'm not saying that we don't have to all get up at the same time, eat at the same time etc. I understand that there would be different office hours, I don't see what that has to do with my post (I might just be really sleepy), but 1 time zone would fix all those problems that I mentioned IMO.

 

Edit: I reread your post, I think I mostly see what you meant now by not stating the time zone, sorry. Refer to my reply to imatfaal, please.

Nothing prevents you from using UTC if you find it useful. But a standard is something for wide adoption, and if it's not useful for most (or even detrimental for some) then it's not likely to be adopted.

I think we can all agree that metric is useful. However, america still doesn't use it. We don't use it not because it's not useful though. We just don't like to change from what we are used to.

 

Brainteaser - most of your problems are easily solved by the addition of three letters after the time; and that's exactly what we do.

... and then all our times are 2x as long. More mistakes, more time spent converting, harder for computers etc.

Edited August 2, 2011 by Brainteaserfan

[CaptainPanic]

I don't understand how which time zone matters. I'm talking about our current system, if you lived close to a line.

 

I'm not saying that we don't have to all get up at the same time, eat at the same time etc. I understand that there would be different office hours, I don't see what that has to do with my post (I might just be really sleepy), but 1 time zone would fix all those problems that I mentioned IMO.

 

... and then all our times are 2x as long. More mistakes, more time spent converting, harder for computers etc.

I think you aim too high with your solution for your problem.

 

If you would just say that North-America could adopt a single time zone, then you would not find so much resistance. There are already some examples in the world where such large time zones work: Central Europe (Central European Time zone, or CET) and China (which has only 1 time zone in the entire country). Also, note that the +3 time zone between Russia and Eastern Europe is completely missing (because we've made the time zones larger).

 

The practical problems with the time zones become more obvious if you discuss it at such a smaller scale, while practical problems are easier to overcome. I guess you live in North-America, possibly in the USA?

 

But to put the entire world into 1 time zone is like trying to cure a simple mild headache with open brain surgery.

 

Edited to fix typos.

Edited August 2, 2011 by CaptainPanic

[Hal.]

I call 1 A.M. ' night - time lunchtime ' . It's a simple personal concept and it works . Use it enough times , 100 days in a row of summer for instance , you'll find that you can tell it's 1 A.M. when you get that ' lunch - time ' hunger feeling . Oh , hello to all , I'm back !

[swansont]

I think we can all agree that metric is useful. However, america still doesn't use it. We don't use it not because it's not useful though. We just don't like to change from what we are used to.

Officially, America does use it. My colleagues use it all the time.

[CaptainPanic]

I call 1 A.M. ' night - time lunchtime ' . It's a simple personal concept and it works . Use it enough times , 100 days in a row of summer for instance , you'll find that you can tell it's 1 A.M. when you get that ' lunch - time ' hunger feeling . Oh , hello to all , I'm back !

I fail to see the relevance of this. But I will reply anyway (I feel like replying).

 

I had a business lunch today. I had agreed with my colleagues to meet in the restaurant right about when we're all starting to feel hungry. I arrived at noon, while some of my colleagues arrived only at 13.30 hrs.

 

Alternatively, we can sync our stomachs. This means I should go to the meeting when I am really hungry, while my colleagues already depart when they are moderately hungry, that way we all arrive at the same time.

 

You cannot run a society on a feeling.

[Hal.]

I call 1 A.M. ' night - time lunchtime ' . It's a simple personal concept and it works . Use it enough times , 100 days in a row of summer for instance , you'll find that you can tell it's 1 A.M. when you get that ' lunch - time ' hunger feeling . Oh , hello to all , I'm back !

 

 

I fail to see the relevance of this.

 

 

People are commenting that one negative confusing aspect of having one time on the clock everywhere would be not knowing what people somewhere else are doing . My micro example can be extended to a macro example . Let's all have lunch - time twice per day to partly solve that little problem .

[TonyMcC]

Many applications use UTC ( also known as Zulu Time) where it is essential that there should be no confusion over this issue. Examples include navigation satellites, aircraft planning schedules and internet servers to name a few. It was also used (and I suppose still is) by the British Armed Forces. I don't know, but I expect things like cruise missile timing and organisation rely on it. In places like radar control rooms there was often a pair of clocks , one, distinctly marked, showing Zulu time and one showing local time. So UTC has an important place in the organisation of the world and is working for all of us somewhere in the background! Would I like to live somewhere where the sun rose at( say) 16.00 hours and set at 09.00 hours the following day? I don't think so! That, I suppose, is why one of the clocks mentioned earlier gave local time!

[CaptainPanic]

People are commenting that one negative confusing aspect of having one time on the clock everywhere would be not knowing what people somewhere else are doing . My micro example can be extended to a macro example . Let's all have lunch - time twice per day to partly solve that little problem .

Ok, I need to get 1 thing clear right now. Brainteaserfan has been promoting your point for a while in this thread, but Brainteaserfan did explicitely say that we "don't have to all get up at the same time, eat at the same time etc." (quoted from post #33). However, this is your thread. Are you perhaps saying that the entire world does things at the same time (i.e. we sleep, work, eat at roughly the same times everywhere)? Office hours worldwide would be synchronized? Or do you propose that we all have the same time on the clocks, but we let our days be governed by the sunlight like it has always been?

 

We shouldn't be discussing two different things in a single thread. Although I oppose both ideas, I need different arguments to fight them.

 

Oh, and btw, please be so kind as to expand your 'micro example' of having lunch at 1 A.M. into a 'macro example' explaining how you see work.

[Hal.]

CaptainPanic ,

 

Brainteaserfan can have whatever way of thinking Brainteaserfan would like to have . If it's the same as my way of thinking , so be it . We don't send each other personal messages trying to co-ordinate attacks on other peoples' opinions as the debate is public . I'm not trying to make converts or to say my opinion is the only opinion that works because everything else is ridiculous . I am not saying one time zone is the only way to have things . I would just like to know some of the problems associated with adjusting to the widespread use of one time zone . Don't forget UTC is one time zone .