Proper timing is very important in today's world, when the pace of life has increased significantly.But the difficulty is the presence of different time zones - in fact when dealing with people from other parts of the world it is important to have some sort of unified interface.For this purpose and should be UTC time.But what people have come to such a system?
What is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)?
In today's world the highest valued universality - the single currency, language, and so on.. But a single timezone enter is simply impossible, because when one hemisphere of the day, in the other - night.In addition, there is a so-called local solar time, going in accordance with the way the lights move across the sky from east to west.But the time zones must be in some way related to each other, have some point of reference.To do this, and there UTC - Coordinated Universal Time.It was from him repel the state, adjusting the clock on its territory.But how did such a system?
history of introducing a single standard
Initially humanity determines the time by the sun.The moment it passed its highest point, was adopted in the afternoon.It is on this principle and worked sundial.But this method is not very accurate, in addition, the development of society require greater versatility.Over time, as the discovery of new lands, and people understand what it takes to enter time zones and bind them together in the first place for the purposes of navigation, it was invented by a system GSM (Greenwich Mean Time), so named due to the fact that the meridian,by which counts the time passed through the observatory at Greenwich.
the way, prior to the introduction of this standard in different countries use their zero points.As a rule, the central meridian in this case pass through the local observatory in France - Paris, Russia - Pulkovo and so on.. But the lack of a uniform standard was uncomfortable.And in 1884, a zero was passed the Greenwich meridian.According to him, not only synchronize watches, but also determine the geographical coordinates - longitude.
Now this standard called UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time.Unlike GMT, it checks with the atomic clock, and every 2-3 years in the scale of the amendments introduced in the form of "excess" of a second.This is done in order to bring your time to astronomical.
designation timezones
Time elsewhere measured from the Greenwich meridian.For simplicity, it is referred to as a difference with him, ie UTC + 1, UTC-8, and so on. D. Not always to distinguish between the time zones used by the meridians, as in some cases it would be somewhat uncomfortable.This, incidentally, was the reason for some very interesting features of timing in different countries.But this will be discussed later.
use
So, when it became clear that such a co-ordinated, it is worth to discuss how it is used in today's world.Firstly, the meridian is still relevant for navigation - like in the ocean, and in the air.Second, globalization has left its imprint on the need for a common time reference.Conference calls between people located in different parts of the world, appointed by UTC.
By the way, in some areas the time zones do not actually exist.We are talking about the Arctic and the Antarctic, where the time conventionally accepted for UTC + 0.In fact, researchers at polar stations can lead the countdown clock as it is convenient.The same applies to the astronauts working on the Earth's orbit.
Interesting facts
system, including Coordinated Universal Time, was formed a long time, as a result there were quite interesting features.
- There is no official abbreviation UTC decryption.In 1970, when this standard was introduced, the variants of TUC (Temps Universel Coordonné) and CUT (Coordinated Universal Time).As a result, it was decided to stop at neutral UTC.
- Novosibirsk was founded on the two banks of the river, which marks the exact hour meridian.And for a long time in the city operated two times.Prior to the construction in 1955, the first bridge is not afforded special disadvantages because two parts of Novosibirsk hardly been associated with each other.But in 1958, the city came to a single timing.
- Logically, the biggest difference in time between the two points of the globe should be 24 hours.But in fact there are 26 time zones.In the Pacific, relatively close to each other there are two island States: American Samoa Archipelago Line.The difference between the time at which 25 hours.As it happens because of the Line Islands, previously owned by the UK, measured the time from the Australian and turned UTC + 14.And the action itself UTC-11, according to the difference with continental America.
- In some regions of Australia sometimes appear horizontal time zones.This is due to the fact that not all states are moving in the winter.
- not always the difference with Greenwich is exactly the number of hours.In Nepal acts UTC + 5: 45, in some Australian cities 8: 45, and on the Chatham archipelago in New Zealand + 12: 45.
