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  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?

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  • G [email protected]

    And you'd still have to adjust to local time anyway! Travel three timezones and now noon is at 9 instead of 12. Your alarm to wake up at 6, now needs to be at 3.

    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
    #5

    Literally sounds a lot worse. Imagine telling your friend in Europe from the USA "ugh, I have to get up at 10 AM for work!" And the european responds with "10am is pretty late!"

    1 Reply Last reply
    17
    • P [email protected]

      Why isn't this a popular thing?

      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
      #6

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

      saltsong@startrek.websiteS 1 Reply Last reply
      16
      • P [email protected]

        Why isn't this a popular thing?

        L This user is from outside of this forum
        L This user is from outside of this forum
        [email protected]
        wrote on last edited by
        #7

        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 H S 3 Replies Last reply
        3
        • R [email protected]

          Because we like midnight to happen at night, and noon to happen during the day

          Y This user is from outside of this forum
          Y This user is from outside of this forum
          [email protected]
          wrote on last edited by
          #8

          This is exactly right. People don't wan to change, even if the new way is demonstrably superior. Look at the adoption of the Metric system in England and the (almost) adoption in the US.

          tal@lemmy.todayT C 2 Replies Last reply
          0
          • P [email protected]

            Why isn't this a popular thing?

            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
            #9

            I'm now imagining that playing out.

            "France, we're thinking about adopting British time as the global standard. Do you have any thoughts or input on the matter?"

            1 Reply Last reply
            2
            • G [email protected]

              And you'd still have to adjust to local time anyway! Travel three timezones and now noon is at 9 instead of 12. Your alarm to wake up at 6, now needs to be at 3.

              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
              #10

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

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

                This is exactly right. People don't wan to change, even if the new way is demonstrably superior. Look at the adoption of the Metric system in England and the (almost) adoption in the US.

                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]
                #11

                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.¹

                ¹ Unless you're talking about an oat bushel, a barley bushel, a wheat bushel, or a few other exceptions.

                M 1 Reply Last reply
                3
                • P [email protected]

                  Why isn't this a popular thing?

                  S This user is from outside of this forum
                  S This user is from outside of this forum
                  [email protected]
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #12

                  Milliseconds since the epoch is the only true time

                  S 1 Reply Last reply
                  4
                  • 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
                    #13

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

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

                      This is exactly right. People don't wan to change, even if the new way is demonstrably superior. Look at the adoption of the Metric system in England and the (almost) adoption in the US.

                      C This user is from outside of this forum
                      C This user is from outside of this forum
                      [email protected]
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #14

                      UTC isn't even demonstrably superior.

                      1 Reply Last reply
                      7
                      • P [email protected]

                        Why isn't this a popular thing?

                        lgsp@feddit.itL This user is from outside of this forum
                        lgsp@feddit.itL This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #15

                        TL:DR -> https://thelemmy.club/comment/19143233

                        Examples:

                        • The year doesn't start at the shortest day (Persian calendar is better in that regard).

                        • month length is not evenly distributed. Why is February shorter?

                        • time is almost never power of 10: there is 12, 60, 24

                        • time zones are used to follow alliances: see al the nations that went to CET after fall of URSS

                        • you can easily estimate your local time by looking at the sun

                        • Holidays tend to happen on the same approximate dates even when major cultural changes happen. See how Christianity took over a lot of things from Romans.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • P [email protected]

                          Why isn't this a popular thing?

                          kolanaki@pawb.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
                          kolanaki@pawb.socialK This user is from outside of this forum
                          [email protected]
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #16

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

                          tal@lemmy.todayT andyburke@fedia.ioA 2 Replies Last reply
                          2
                          • 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.¹

                            ¹ 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.

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                              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.

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