Time Zone Confusion: Why the Earth is Divided into 38 Instead of 24 Time Zones

A day is known to have 24 hours – so the world should consequently be divided into 24 time zones. Or not? In fact, we have divided our planet Earth into 38 time zones. Why this is the case and what confusion sometimes arises around our time zones is explained in our article.

The division of our world into 38 time zones includes both geographical and political factors:

• International Date Line: The date line in the Pacific theoretically runs along the 180th meridian. In reality, however, it zigzags and crosses several time zones. This creates additional time zones such as UTC+12, UTC-12, UTC+13, and UTC+14.
• Half-hour and quarter-hour time zones: Some countries use time zones that do not align exactly with whole hours. For example, there are time zones that deviate by 30 or 45 minutes from the neighboring time zone. For instance, India (UTC+5:30), Nepal (UTC+5:45), or the Chatham Islands (New Zealand): UTC+12:45.
• Political and economic reasons: Countries sometimes adjust their time zones for political or economic reasons, rather than strictly following the lines of longitude. For example, Portugal and Spain have different time zones, even though they are geographically next to each other.
• Geographical Features: The natural boundaries and the east-west extent of countries result in some countries having multiple time zones. Russia, for example, spans eleven time zones, while China, although also geographically large, uses a single time zone for the entire country.
• Daylight Saving Time: Some regions use permanent Daylight Saving Time to avoid disruptions in daily life and the economy. However, this leads to temporary shifts, resulting in certain places switching to a different time zone for part of the year. A current example of the permanent introduction of Daylight Saving Time is Greenland: Since 2023, Greenland has permanently adopted Daylight Saving Time, bringing it one hour closer to Europe.
• International Agreements: Some regions have special agreements or historical reasons for their specific time zone. In some cases, small islands or remote areas may use time zones that are atypical for their geographical location.

 

Advantages of dividing the Earth into 24 time zones

Dividing the Earth into 24 time zones would make life easier. If each time zone corresponds to a one-hour difference from the neighboring zone, it would create a clear and uniform structure. This would be a significant relief for international communication and coordination, especially in countries with a large east-west expanse. Flight schedules, transportation, international meetings, and other time-sensitive activities could be organized more efficiently with just 24 time zones.

 

"In the past, the position of the sun was responsible for the time."

Before we introduced time zones, every village, every town, and every community had its own local time. The clock in the town was set according to when the sun was at its highest, and everything was fine. Distances between places and the speed at which people could travel meant that small time differences between places didn't matter.

Berlin and Aachen are about 500 kilometers apart, and it took several days to travel from one place to the other. The difference of 30 minutes didn't matter, as there weren't even accurate wristwatches until the 19th century. After a journey of several days, one could not determine the difference of 30 minutes.

But over time, life became faster: trains traveled back and forth between cities, and small time differences began to cause the first problems. One example: When it was said that a train would arrive at 9:00 AM, was it 9:00 AM in Berlin, from where the train departed, or 9:00 AM in Aachen, where it arrived? A difference of just a few minutes could suddenly make the difference between someone missing the train or catching it.

"Sooner or later, a solution to this problem had to be found. And the solution was the division of our Earth into time zones, so that all people in the world have the same time."

In Germany, this was relatively easy given the size of the country and the fact that it mainly runs in a north-south direction.

 

Establishment of the first time zones in the 19th century

In the United States, the situation was somewhat more problematic. The country is large, and when the railroad began to cross the continent in the 1860s, the issue of time coordination became a real problem.

The first time zone system introduced in North America was proposed by William F. Allen, the editor of the "Traveler's Official Railway Guide." The American and Canadian railroads adopted the system in 1883. However, this system primarily had the problem that the boundaries of the time zones ran through large cities and often directly through the train stations. The division of cities into different time zones could not work in the long run.

"Although the boundaries of the time zones were eventually moved and adjusted to rural areas, the five time zones that resulted are the basic time zones we use today in North America: Greenwich, East, Central, Mountain, and Pacific."

The father of global time zones is the Canadian Sir Sandford Fleming, who proposed a global time zone system in 1879 of 1 hour for every 15 degrees of longitude. By 1900, most places in the world had adopted a time zone that deviated from Greenwich Mean Time by a whole number of hours.

However, there is no global body that prescribes time zones. Each country and many regions can still determine their own local time. Like Spain, for example.

 

Time differences within Germany

Within Germany, there are no official time differences, as the entire country is in Central European Time (CET) or Central European Summer Time (CEST). However, there is a minimal difference in solar time or solar position, which is due to the longitudinal differences within the country.

"Germany extends from about 5° to 15° eastern longitude. Since the sun moves about one hour for every 15 degrees of longitude, this results in a difference of about 40 minutes in solar time between the westernmost and easternmost points of the country:"

• Aachen (approx. 6° eastern longitude): The sun is at its highest point here about 30 minutes later compared to places in the far east.
• Berlin (approx. 13° east longitude): Here, the sun reaches its highest point about 30 minutes earlier than in Aachen.

 

Some countries are obviously in the wrong time zone.

When looking at the time zone map, it is obvious that Spain is in the wrong time zone. Spain is located directly south of the United Kingdom, and the Prime Meridian runs directly through the country – yet Spain is in the same time zone as Germany and Poland. This results in very late sunrises and sunsets in Spain.

The Spanish tradition of eating dinner very late comes from being in the wrong time zone.

It is thanks to General Francisco Franco, who in 1940, in an act of unity with Germany, set the clocks forward by one hour so that both countries had the same time. After the end of the war and Franco's death, the clocks in Spain were not set back. There has been talk of changing the time zones, but nothing has been done so far.

 

Confusing quarter-hour time zones

The time zones become more detailed, especially in the area of Australia and Oceania:

South Australia and the Northern Territory are half an hour behind the eastern states of Australia, but one and a half hours ahead of Western Australia. To make it even more confusing, the small town of Eucla in Western Australia, on the border with South Australia, has its own little time zone, where the time difference between Perth and Adelaide is split and is 45 minutes away from both.

India, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Afghanistan are also all in half-hour time zones.

The biggest problem, however, is Nepal, which has its own time zone that is 5:45 hours away from GMT.

"Fortunately, what was once a logistical nightmare for world travelers is now a piece of cake: thanks to technology and smartphones, we always get the right time displayed."