![]() ![]() That’s when the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (pronounced ) was commissioned by King Charles II for the purpose of studying cartography, geography, meteorology, and related subjects (including time). In 1721, the Royal Observatory began to use Greenwich as the location for the UK’s prime meridian in map making and navigation systems. The prime meridian is the longitude (line stretching north to south) that is considered the anchor or central point of a map, labeled 0⁰.įast forward to the 1800s. The UK was in need of a standard time to keep the trains running on schedule. Up until then, towns and regions were able to set their own time as they saw fit. It was decided that the mean time-in other words, the time after correcting for changes in the apparent lengths of days caused by the Earth’s rotation around the sun-in Greenwich at the prime meridian was going to be the standard. The first public declaration of Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, was made in 1833. In 1884, the International Meridian Conference agreed that GMT was going to be the benchmark for all time zones around the world. The name for England’s time zone is GMT+0. In France, 15⁰ degrees east across the channel, it is GMT+1, indicating that the standard time in France is one hour ahead of the standard time in England. What is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)?įor complicated reasons that have to do with the rotation of the Earth and advancements in measurements in time, scientists in the 1960s introduced a more sophisticated and precise time standard known as Coordinated Universal Time.Īnd so on, so that there are in total 24 potential time zones around the world … although some places, like China, set their own rules. It is coordinated and universal because it is used around the world. You might be wondering why the acronym for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC and not CUT. Well, that’s because in order to get the French on board with the system, it was decided the name would be given in French and English. ( Typique.) Coordinated Universal Time in French is universel temps coordonné or, in other words, UTC. Unless you’re navigating a boat or conducting scientific research, the differences between GMT and UTC would be imperceptible to you. Making sense of American time zonesĮverything in America is a little different, including our time zone lingo. Americans don’t use the GMT or UTC format for labeling time zones. In 1883, America adopted four time zones to be used by railways (and therefore everyone else): Eastern Standard Time (EST or ET) Instead, they use a homemade alphabet soup of acronyms. In the United States, Eastern Standard Time, or UTC-5, stretches from the East Coast to western Indiana. Fun fact: there is also an Australian Eastern Standard Time, at UTC+10.Īmerica’s time zone is colloquially known as Eastern Time. Eastern Time or ET is the catch-all term for Eastern Standard Time and Eastern Daylight Saving Time (which we will get to a minute).
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