3 ms·

Answer: you just have a bigger time zone table, like https://www.netburner.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Comparative-time-table.jpg https://www.netburner.com/w

Answer: you just have a bigger time zone table, like https://www.netburner.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Comparative-time-table.jpg https://www.netburner.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Compara..., where you can see that A (which perhaps stands for Albany, N.Y.) is 14 minutes ahead of Washington D.C., and B (which is perhaps Baltimore, Md.) is 2 minutes ahead, so this rather fast train will arrive at 2:48pm (12:00 noon + 3 hours − 14 minutes + 2 minutes). It’s really no different from the coarse-grained time zone system, just more complicated because you have much bigger tables. (I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a picture of a railway’s time zone table from before the 1883 change to coarser time zones, sorted by station, with most deltas being one or two minutes, but I can’t find it now.)

maratc 5y ago
This also depends on the day, since "noon to noon" is no longer 24 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds. So these tables aren't just "much bigger", they are also changing daily. We would have to either 1. redefine what a "day" is, or 2. redefine what a "second" is — and that's on a daily basis. Suggesting the whole population starts doing these calculations every time they need to figure out things like "can I take the noon train and still be there on time for my meeting at 3:15 pm" or "my boss asked me to call him at 9am his time, what local time should I place the call?" is completely pointless.
- chrismorgan 5y ago
  I was assuming we were reverting to how things were two hundred years ago (when a day was of 24 hours of fixed duration and noon was correlated with solar noon, though the precise function I know not), not two thousand (when solar day and solar night were divided into 12 variable hours). If you were really aiming to have noon be solar noon each day… yeah, much misery would ensue.
  - maratc 5y ago
    I wasn't aiming for anything but GP seemingly was: > We should redefine noon to the time when the local sun is most directly overhead. The local sun is "most directly overhead" at a different time each day at any place (maybe with the exception of Arctic circles when it's not up at all).
  - bluGill 5y ago
    No, it is useful to have a synchronized clock for some activities.

maratc 5y ago

This also depends on the day, since "noon to noon" is no longer 24 hours 0 minutes 0 seconds. So these tables aren't just "much bigger", they are also changing daily. We would have to either 1. redefine what a "day" is, or 2. redefine what a "second" is — and that's on a daily basis. Suggesting the whole population starts doing these calculations every time they need to figure out things like "can I take the noon train and still be there on time for my meeting at 3:15 pm" or "my boss asked me to call him at 9am his time, what local time should I place the call?" is completely pointless.

chrismorgan 5y ago
I was assuming we were reverting to how things were two hundred years ago (when a day was of 24 hours of fixed duration and noon was correlated with solar noon, though the precise function I know not), not two thousand (when solar day and solar night were divided into 12 variable hours). If you were really aiming to have noon be solar noon each day… yeah, much misery would ensue.
- maratc 5y ago
  I wasn't aiming for anything but GP seemingly was: > We should redefine noon to the time when the local sun is most directly overhead. The local sun is "most directly overhead" at a different time each day at any place (maybe with the exception of Arctic circles when it's not up at all).
- bluGill 5y ago
  No, it is useful to have a synchronized clock for some activities.