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"We cant imagine why US that has multiple time-zones already in a single country" Because "The USA" spans from GMT+10 to GMT-10. Your Solar Noon only varies b

"We cant imagine why US that has multiple time-zones already in a single country" Because "The USA" spans from GMT+10 to GMT-10. Your Solar Noon only varies by an hour between Kolkata and Mumbai. Without time zones, the continental U.S. would see a solar noon difference of three and a half hours. And that's not including Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam, which gives us a 20 hour span. You want all those places to be in the same time zone?

albert_e 3y ago
please read my post again. I was not arguing for a single time zone. you quoted only half of my sentence and are arguing against a strawman.
- icehawk 3y ago
  They're not the only person that read it like that. I did too.
- aflag 3y ago
  The way you worded was very confusing to me as well. I also interpreted the same way. I’m not a native English speaker, though.
crote 3y ago
Greenland has a single timezone for a 4-hour span. China has a single timezone for a 5-hour span. Having a single timezone for the contiguous US would definitely not be unheard of. Guam is a bit of an odd duck because it is on the other side of the date line. The US currently spans from UTC-4 in Puerto Rico to UTC+10 in Guam - which is essentially the same as UTC-14. That's a 10-hour span, not a 20-hour one. Still, excluding the minor overseas colonial possessions would probably make the most sense.
- tzs 3y ago
  > Greenland has a single timezone for a 4-hour span 95+% of Greenland's population lives on its west coast. The most common map projection one is likely to come across makes it look like that spans a pretty large longitude range but it actually only covers about 15°, a 1-hour span. Take a look at a projection that does a better job of representing latitude, such as this [1] azimuthal equidistant projection and you can see that west coast Greenland is a lot more north/south than you might have expected based on the more usual projections. Here's a map of the towns in Greenland with >300 population [2] showing how much more populated the west coast is than the rest of the country. If you add their populations and the populations of the towns listed in the table but too small to make the map it comes to about 3100 people. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuthal_equidistant_projection#/media/File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuthal_equidistant_projecti... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Greenland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Gr...
- ochrist 3y ago
  Greenland has four timezones in use: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/greenland https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/greenland
- kingofpandora 3y ago
  Have you been to China? It's time zone make sense for Beijing and the coast but forces the "Chinese" of Xinjiang to do things at unnatural hours for the convenience of the ruling elite. It's bizarre to suggest that someone in western Alaska should wake up at the same time as someone in Florida because that's what India does.
  - Longhanks 3y ago
    No, it’s bizarre to suggest "7:00 am" should mean sunrise for everyone, regardless of their location - it’s impossible to achieve.
    - teddyh 3y ago
      Well, the opposite is also not very desirable: <https://qntm.org/abolish https://qntm.org/abolish>
    - Dylan16807 3y ago
      The goal is that 12:00 is pretty close to noon, which is reasonably possible. (And even though lining up a time with morning would be significantly more annoying and need to exclude the polar circles, I still wouldn't call it "impossible".)
  - Muehe 3y ago
    You know what? Good on them! We should all just use UTC everywhere and adjust business hours accordingly. Get rid of timezones altogether. If you want to know when the sun rises, sets, or is at its apex just look it up in a table. The former two vary unless you are very close to the equator anyway, and the latter is off by an hour for every country using "daylight saving time" for half the year. Never mind countries that span more than 1/24th of the globe but use a single timezone, and that isn't just China. Also I don't really see how this is "for the convenience of the ruling elite". I'd be willing to bet money most people in Xinjiang wouldn't have this "problem" in their top ten. Probably not even top hundred. This seems like something you get used to once and then never think about again unless you travel or have a remote meeting.
- chpatrick 3y ago
  Greenland only has 50K people and China's timezone situation is kind of crazy. I don't think those really support your argument.
- pdonis 3y ago
  > The US currently spans from UTC-4 in Puerto Rico to UTC+10 in Guam No, it spans from UTC-10 in Hawaii to UTC+10 in Guam. And if we include other US territories in the Pacific, like American Samoa, we have to include UTC-11. That's 21 hours.

albert_e 3y ago

please read my post again. I was not arguing for a single time zone. you quoted only half of my sentence and are arguing against a strawman.

icehawk 3y ago
They're not the only person that read it like that. I did too.
aflag 3y ago
The way you worded was very confusing to me as well. I also interpreted the same way. I’m not a native English speaker, though.

crote 3y ago

Greenland has a single timezone for a 4-hour span. China has a single timezone for a 5-hour span. Having a single timezone for the contiguous US would definitely not be unheard of. Guam is a bit of an odd duck because it is on the other side of the date line. The US currently spans from UTC-4 in Puerto Rico to UTC+10 in Guam - which is essentially the same as UTC-14. That's a 10-hour span, not a 20-hour one. Still, excluding the minor overseas colonial possessions would probably make the most sense.

tzs 3y ago
> Greenland has a single timezone for a 4-hour span 95+% of Greenland's population lives on its west coast. The most common map projection one is likely to come across makes it look like that spans a pretty large longitude range but it actually only covers about 15°, a 1-hour span. Take a look at a projection that does a better job of representing latitude, such as this [1] azimuthal equidistant projection and you can see that west coast Greenland is a lot more north/south than you might have expected based on the more usual projections. Here's a map of the towns in Greenland with >300 population [2] showing how much more populated the west coast is than the rest of the country. If you add their populations and the populations of the towns listed in the table but too small to make the map it comes to about 3100 people. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuthal_equidistant_projection#/media/File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuthal_equidistant_projecti... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Greenland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Gr...
ochrist 3y ago
Greenland has four timezones in use: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/greenland https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zone/greenland
kingofpandora 3y ago
Have you been to China? It's time zone make sense for Beijing and the coast but forces the "Chinese" of Xinjiang to do things at unnatural hours for the convenience of the ruling elite. It's bizarre to suggest that someone in western Alaska should wake up at the same time as someone in Florida because that's what India does.
- Longhanks 3y ago
  No, it’s bizarre to suggest "7:00 am" should mean sunrise for everyone, regardless of their location - it’s impossible to achieve.
  - teddyh 3y ago
    Well, the opposite is also not very desirable: <https://qntm.org/abolish https://qntm.org/abolish>
  - Dylan16807 3y ago
    The goal is that 12:00 is pretty close to noon, which is reasonably possible. (And even though lining up a time with morning would be significantly more annoying and need to exclude the polar circles, I still wouldn't call it "impossible".)
- Muehe 3y ago
  You know what? Good on them! We should all just use UTC everywhere and adjust business hours accordingly. Get rid of timezones altogether. If you want to know when the sun rises, sets, or is at its apex just look it up in a table. The former two vary unless you are very close to the equator anyway, and the latter is off by an hour for every country using "daylight saving time" for half the year. Never mind countries that span more than 1/24th of the globe but use a single timezone, and that isn't just China. Also I don't really see how this is "for the convenience of the ruling elite". I'd be willing to bet money most people in Xinjiang wouldn't have this "problem" in their top ten. Probably not even top hundred. This seems like something you get used to once and then never think about again unless you travel or have a remote meeting.
chpatrick 3y ago
Greenland only has 50K people and China's timezone situation is kind of crazy. I don't think those really support your argument.
pdonis 3y ago
> The US currently spans from UTC-4 in Puerto Rico to UTC+10 in Guam No, it spans from UTC-10 in Hawaii to UTC+10 in Guam. And if we include other US territories in the Pacific, like American Samoa, we have to include UTC-11. That's 21 hours.