Scribd
Upload
93 views2 pages

Time Local and Universal

Local time is based on the position of the sun relative to a location and is what people use to regulate daily schedules. Universal time is a single agreed-upon clock marking time worldwide without ties to location. It is defined as local time in Greenwich, England at the prime meridian. Every 15 degrees of longitude equals one hour difference in time between locations. Time zones were established to standardize time within countries. The international date line avoids issues that arise when traveling west and crossing back to the previous day. Universal time provides a location-independent schedule for astronomers and satellite data.

Uploaded by

voxpapuli
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
93 views2 pages

Time Local and Universal

Local time is based on the position of the sun relative to a location and is what people use to regulate daily schedules. Universal time is a single agreed-upon clock marking time worldwide without ties to location. It is defined as local time in Greenwich, England at the prime meridian. Every 15 degrees of longitude equals one hour difference in time between locations. Time zones were established to standardize time within countries. The international date line avoids issues that arise when traveling west and crossing back to the previous day. Universal time provides a location-independent schedule for astronomers and satellite data.

Uploaded by

voxpapuli
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

TIME Local and Universal:

Two important concepts, related to Latitude and Longitude are Local time (LT) and Universal time (UT). Local Time (LT) is actually a measure of the position of the Sun relative to a Locality. At 12 noon Local time, the Sun passes to the south and is furthest from the horizon (northern hemisphere). Somewhere around 6 am it rises, and around 6 pm it sets. Local Time is what you and I use to regulate our lives locally, our work times, meals and sleep-times. But suppose we wanted to time an astronomical event--e.g. the time when the 1987 supernova was first detected. For that we need a single agreed-on clock, marking time world-wide, not tied to our locality. That is Universal Time (UT), which can be defined (with some slight imprecision, no concern here) as the Local Time in Greenwich, England, at the Zero Meridian. Local Time (LT) and Time Zones: Longitudes are measured from zero to 180 east and 180 west (or 180), and both 180-degree Longitudes share the same line, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As the Earth rotates around its axis, at any moment one line of Longitude--"the Noon Meridian"--faces the Sun, and at that moment, it will be Noon everywhere on it. After 24 hours the Earth has undergone a full rotation with respect to the Sun, and the same meridian again faces noon. Thus each hour the Earth rotates by 360/24 = 15 degrees. When at your location the time is 12 noon, 15 to the east the time is 1 p.m., for that is the meridian which faced the Sun an hour ago. On the other hand, 15 to the west the time is 11 a.m., for in an hour's time, that meridian will face the Sun and experience noon. Every country of the world has their own time zones. In addition, in some countries, the clock is generally shifted one hour forward between April and October. This "daylight saving time" allows people to take advantage of earlier sunrises, without shifting their working hours. By rising earlier and retiring sooner, you make better use of the sunlight of the early morning, and you can enjoy sunlight one hour longer in late afternoon. The Date Line and Universal Time (UT): Suppose it is noon where you are and you proceed west--and suppose you could travel instantly to wherever you wanted. Fifteen degrees to the west the time is 11 a.m., 30 degrees to the west, 10 a.m., 45 degrees--9 a.m. and so on. Keeping this up, 180 degrees away one should reach midnight, and still further west, it is the previous day. This way, by the time we have covered 360 degrees and have come back to where we are, the time should be noon again--yesterday noon. By this way, We can travel from today to the same time yesterday! We got into trouble because longitude determines only the hour of the day--not the date, which is determined separately. To avoid the sort of problem encountered above, the international date line has been established--most of it following the 180th meridian--where by common agreement, whenever we cross it the date advances one day (going west) or goes back one day (going east). That line passes the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia, which thus have different dates, but for most of its course it runs in mid-ocean and does not inconvenience any local time keeping.

Astronomers, astronauts and people dealing with satellite data may need a time schedule which is the same everywhere, not tied to a locality or time zone. The Greenwich Mean Time, the astronomical time at Greenwich (averaged over the year) is generally

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy