Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo

agnos.is Forums

  1. Home
  2. Ask Lemmy
  3. Why don't the whole planet just use UTC+00:00 / Universal Time without time zones?

Why don't the whole planet just use UTC+00:00 / Universal Time without time zones?

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Ask Lemmy
asklemmy
153 Posts 71 Posters 453 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • tal@lemmy.todayT [email protected]

    and the (almost) adoption in the US.

    For example:

    • 1 bushel is exactly 64 dry pints.

    • 1 dry pint is exactly 107521/92400 liquid pints.

    • 1 liquid pint is exactly 231/8 cubic inches.

    • We formally defined the inch in terms of the metric system in the 1950s as being precisely 2.54 centimeters.

    Thus making the bushel exactly 220244188543/6250000 cubic centimeters.ΒΉ

    ΒΉ Unless you're talking about an oat bushel, a barley bushel, a wheat bushel, or a few other exceptions.

    M This user is from outside of this forum
    M This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote on last edited by [email protected]
    #17

    Well, that is neat. When using metric and celsius:

    • 1 kilometer is 1.000 meters.
    • 1 square meter of water weighs exactly 1 tonne. (1.000 kilo also known as a kilokilo)
    • The vastly superior metric dozen is exactly 10.
    • Water freezes at exactly 0 degrees.
    • 1 meter of water takes exactly 100 minutes - a metric hour - to completely evaporate when heated to 100 degrees. Doing so requires exactly 1 kilowatt of power.
    saltsong@startrek.websiteS 1 Reply Last reply
    2
    • P [email protected]

      Why isn't this a popular thing?

      quazatron@lemmy.worldQ This user is from outside of this forum
      quazatron@lemmy.worldQ This user is from outside of this forum
      [email protected]
      wrote on last edited by
      #18

      Same reason some people use miles instead of kilometers, or that most people use Windows even if they hate it.

      Inertia is a powerful force.

      1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • P [email protected]

        Why isn't this a popular thing?

        V This user is from outside of this forum
        V This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote on last edited by
        #19

        Swatch Internet Time tried doing something like that

        tal@lemmy.todayT 1 Reply Last reply
        1
        • baronvonj@lemmy.worldB [email protected]

          Why would you want to get up every day at 6 am from three time zones over?

          G This user is from outside of this forum
          G This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote on last edited by
          #20

          Sunrise at 06:00 UTC in one timezone would occur at 03:00 UTC three timezones over, I mean. The relationship between standard time and local, solar noon based time (sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight) is going to have a flexing relationship across different places on Earth. So if you're travelling or even communicating across timezones, you haven't fixed anything by using UTC since daily activities (sleep, meals, etc.) are still correlated to when the sun is up or not. Timezones communicates that daily relationship with time pretty effectively without having to do a lot of thought about it all the time.

          baronvonj@lemmy.worldB 1 Reply Last reply
          3
          • L [email protected]

            Because timezones were a result of town specific clocks, which were a result of people liking certain hours happening generally in line with where the sun is, like "noon" which still technically refers to when the sun is at its highest point.

            H This user is from outside of this forum
            H This user is from outside of this forum
            [email protected]
            wrote on last edited by
            #21

            Well, the result of railroads needing to standardize time tables.

            Prior to that, towns had their own local time, and often it was approximate at best, based on a guy looking at a shadow and keeping time with inaccurate tools.

            Imagine trying to explain to the people of Bumblefuck, IA that the train departs Nowheresville, IA at 10:30, and is a 30 minute trip, but the train arrives in Bumblefuck at 10:52 because the town clock is the one guy that winds his watch every day.

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • G [email protected]

              Sunrise at 06:00 UTC in one timezone would occur at 03:00 UTC three timezones over, I mean. The relationship between standard time and local, solar noon based time (sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight) is going to have a flexing relationship across different places on Earth. So if you're travelling or even communicating across timezones, you haven't fixed anything by using UTC since daily activities (sleep, meals, etc.) are still correlated to when the sun is up or not. Timezones communicates that daily relationship with time pretty effectively without having to do a lot of thought about it all the time.

              baronvonj@lemmy.worldB This user is from outside of this forum
              baronvonj@lemmy.worldB This user is from outside of this forum
              [email protected]
              wrote on last edited by
              #22

              Sunrise at 06:00 UTC in one timezone would occur at 03:00 UTC three timezones over

              Right, but I wouldn't want to keep my daily routine aligned to a different time zone than where I am.

              So if you're travelling or even communicating across timezones, you haven't fixed anything by using UTC since daily activities (sleep, meals, etc.) are still correlated to when the sun is up or not

              Exactly. So why would I want to adjust my alarm to 3am after travelling 3 time zones? I only care about relating the time between two zones for real-time communication with people in the other zone. And I'm not getting up at 3am for them.

              G 1 Reply Last reply
              1
              • H [email protected]

                Time zones were the result of railroads getting towns to abandon their town specific clocks because of railroads.

                H This user is from outside of this forum
                H This user is from outside of this forum
                [email protected]
                wrote on last edited by
                #23

                This really fails to acknowledge the hodegpode, anything goes chaos that was towns choosing their own noon based around someone with a watch and a bell looking at the shadow on a stick a few times a year.

                Sometimes standardization isn't simply a terror induced by capitalism, and has accrual benefits.

                H 1 Reply Last reply
                1
                • kolanaki@pawb.socialK [email protected]

                  Because who the hell wants to say it's 11 in the morning while it's dark out?

                  tal@lemmy.todayT This user is from outside of this forum
                  tal@lemmy.todayT This user is from outside of this forum
                  [email protected]
                  wrote on last edited by [email protected]
                  #24

                  "No one," sourly thought a reader in Longyearbyen, Norway. "No one, dammit."

                  Longyearbyen experiences midnight sun from between 18 April and 24 August (128 days), polar night from 27 October to 15 February (111 days), and civil polar night from 13 November to 29 January. However, due to shading from mountains, the sun is not visible in Longyearbyen until around 8 March.

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • V [email protected]

                    Swatch Internet Time tried doing something like that

                    tal@lemmy.todayT This user is from outside of this forum
                    tal@lemmy.todayT This user is from outside of this forum
                    [email protected]
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #25

                    tried

                    https://f-droid.org/en/packages/eu.mirkodi.swatchbeatclock/

                    Can still do it!

                    1 Reply Last reply
                    2
                    • baronvonj@lemmy.worldB [email protected]

                      Sunrise at 06:00 UTC in one timezone would occur at 03:00 UTC three timezones over

                      Right, but I wouldn't want to keep my daily routine aligned to a different time zone than where I am.

                      So if you're travelling or even communicating across timezones, you haven't fixed anything by using UTC since daily activities (sleep, meals, etc.) are still correlated to when the sun is up or not

                      Exactly. So why would I want to adjust my alarm to 3am after travelling 3 time zones? I only care about relating the time between two zones for real-time communication with people in the other zone. And I'm not getting up at 3am for them.

                      G This user is from outside of this forum
                      G This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #26

                      I don't understand what you're asking here. I'm saying if you kept UTC in every place on earth, you'd still have to relate those hours to a solar based local time. If you wake up at 6UTC in London and then travel to Moscow, the sun in Moscow would rise 3 hours earlier (guessing, not sure exactly what time time difference is). So if Moscow was also keeping UTC, they would set their alarms for 3UTC to wake up with the sun. If you travel to Moscow, you'd wake up at 3UTC with the sun, which is the equivalent of 3am London time, but is around sunrise locally. This is just how time zones work, so I have no idea where the confusion is.

                      baronvonj@lemmy.worldB 1 Reply Last reply
                      1
                      • H [email protected]

                        This really fails to acknowledge the hodegpode, anything goes chaos that was towns choosing their own noon based around someone with a watch and a bell looking at the shadow on a stick a few times a year.

                        Sometimes standardization isn't simply a terror induced by capitalism, and has accrual benefits.

                        H This user is from outside of this forum
                        H This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #27

                        It wasn't a hodgepodge; it was a system designed to the requirements of the day. Every town setting their own clocks to the local high noon wasn't a bad idea for a while. Hell, the ability to transfer the knowledge of time from another part of the world only came about a few generations before.

                        It wasn't until the railroads started operating where it became important for different cities to have the same time down to the minute. Until then, local noon worked well enough.

                        H 1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • kolanaki@pawb.socialK [email protected]

                          Because who the hell wants to say it's 11 in the morning while it's dark out?

                          andyburke@fedia.ioA This user is from outside of this forum
                          andyburke@fedia.ioA This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #28

                          For no time zones? πŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈ

                          sxan@midwest.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                          2
                          • P [email protected]

                            Why isn't this a popular thing?

                            F This user is from outside of this forum
                            F This user is from outside of this forum
                            [email protected]
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #29

                            I see this argument all the time. Forget all the tradition, "people like noon near solar noon", all that.

                            Date changes mid day some places and not others would be a nightmare for so many things.

                            What're you doing on the Tuesday half of June 15/16th?

                            artisian@lemmy.worldA W 2 Replies Last reply
                            4
                            • G [email protected]

                              I don't understand what you're asking here. I'm saying if you kept UTC in every place on earth, you'd still have to relate those hours to a solar based local time. If you wake up at 6UTC in London and then travel to Moscow, the sun in Moscow would rise 3 hours earlier (guessing, not sure exactly what time time difference is). So if Moscow was also keeping UTC, they would set their alarms for 3UTC to wake up with the sun. If you travel to Moscow, you'd wake up at 3UTC with the sun, which is the equivalent of 3am London time, but is around sunrise locally. This is just how time zones work, so I have no idea where the confusion is.

                              baronvonj@lemmy.worldB This user is from outside of this forum
                              baronvonj@lemmy.worldB This user is from outside of this forum
                              [email protected]
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #30

                              I mistook your original comment about the alarm clock. I wasn't reading it as the clocks in all timezones being set to UTC and rather that you wanted to keep your daily routine aligned with the daily solar cycle of the time zone you left.

                              G 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • M [email protected]

                                Well, that is neat. When using metric and celsius:

                                • 1 kilometer is 1.000 meters.
                                • 1 square meter of water weighs exactly 1 tonne. (1.000 kilo also known as a kilokilo)
                                • The vastly superior metric dozen is exactly 10.
                                • Water freezes at exactly 0 degrees.
                                • 1 meter of water takes exactly 100 minutes - a metric hour - to completely evaporate when heated to 100 degrees. Doing so requires exactly 1 kilowatt of power.
                                saltsong@startrek.websiteS This user is from outside of this forum
                                saltsong@startrek.websiteS This user is from outside of this forum
                                [email protected]
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #31

                                Your last point is wrong, at least as you have stated it. Evaporation time is based on surface area, and the required power is based on volume, but you expressed the amount of water as a length.

                                Still, metric is way better.

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • andyburke@fedia.ioA [email protected]

                                  For no time zones? πŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈ

                                  sxan@midwest.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                                  sxan@midwest.socialS This user is from outside of this forum
                                  [email protected]
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #32

                                  Do you also want the day to change from Sunday to Monday in the middle of your Sunday morning? Or do we change days at different hours everywhere?

                                  andyburke@fedia.ioA 1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • H [email protected]

                                    The cultural relationship with time is more important than its absolute measurement.

                                    saltsong@startrek.websiteS This user is from outside of this forum
                                    saltsong@startrek.websiteS This user is from outside of this forum
                                    [email protected]
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #33

                                    Tell that to the trains.

                                    H 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • F [email protected]

                                      I see this argument all the time. Forget all the tradition, "people like noon near solar noon", all that.

                                      Date changes mid day some places and not others would be a nightmare for so many things.

                                      What're you doing on the Tuesday half of June 15/16th?

                                      artisian@lemmy.worldA This user is from outside of this forum
                                      artisian@lemmy.worldA This user is from outside of this forum
                                      [email protected]
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #34

                                      This sounds like something legitimately terrifying, but I'm struggling to make it concrete. Could you expand on the example a bit?

                                      S 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • sxan@midwest.socialS [email protected]

                                        Do you also want the day to change from Sunday to Monday in the middle of your Sunday morning? Or do we change days at different hours everywhere?

                                        andyburke@fedia.ioA This user is from outside of this forum
                                        andyburke@fedia.ioA This user is from outside of this forum
                                        [email protected]
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #35

                                        Everyone changes days at the same time. That's the point.

                                        You would get used to the switchover being in the middle of your working/waking day.

                                        This wouldn't be a big deal and if it were the status quo I bet someone, if not you, would be saying how dumb having everyone on different days would be in the mirror universe version of this thread.

                                        sxan@midwest.socialS 1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • F [email protected]

                                          I see this argument all the time. Forget all the tradition, "people like noon near solar noon", all that.

                                          Date changes mid day some places and not others would be a nightmare for so many things.

                                          What're you doing on the Tuesday half of June 15/16th?

                                          W This user is from outside of this forum
                                          W This user is from outside of this forum
                                          [email protected]
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #36

                                          This happens anyway. I literally have meetings every week where it's Tuesday night for everyone else on the meeting, and Wednesday morning for me.

                                          N 1 Reply Last reply
                                          2
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups