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Another change that I just thought of is that Iceland should be changed from UTC to UTC -1, and Ireland would fit very snugly in the UTC -0:30 time zone (incidentally, so would the Faroe Islands, Portugal, and Morocco). France and most of Western Europe should be on UTC. Most of Argentina should be UTC -4, and parts of western Argentina should be UTC -5 (the current zone is UTC -3).
I suspect in many cases the mismatch between solar time is intentional. In general, it's more common for places to ahead of their solar time than behind.
If Ireland joined solar time it would mean that there would only be a 3.5 hour difference between here and USA in summr but 4.5 between Russia and here. The effect of timezones by latitude is weird. That won't happen though because of Europe. The closest we'd get to that is permanent gmt.But that ain't gonna happen because England won't drop dst, so Ireland won't either.
I suspect in many cases the mismatch between solar time is intentional. In general, it's more common for places to ahead of their solar time than behind.
True, but in most cases it's due to economics, and the general westward creep is almost an accident. For instance, Detroit and Michigan were put on Eastern Time to sync up with Washington and NYC, and then Chicago wanted to get in on the action (but the Feds said no). Most of the Western European countries are on UTC +1 to sync up with Central Europe. In most of these cases the big financial centers are towards the east, so the zones creep west.
True, but in most cases it's due to economics, and the general westward creep is almost an accident. For instance, Detroit and Michigan were put on Eastern Time to sync up with Washington and NYC, and then Chicago wanted to get in on the action (but the Feds said no). Most of the Western European countries are on UTC +1 to sync up with Central Europe. In most of these cases the big financial centers are towards the east, so the zones creep west.
That wasn't an economic decision though. France uses Central European Time because when it was decided that UTC was to be based on Greenwich time and not Paris time they did the French thing and refused to have any part of it, whereas Spain changed to UTC+1 in 1940 as a gesture of solidarity with Nazi Germany rather than take part in the war. I think Holland/Belgium were put on German time during one of the world wars and then when it was over decided they preferred it that way anyway and never went back.
That wasn't an economic decision though. France uses Central European Time because when it was decided that UTC was to be based on Greenwich time and not Paris time they did the French thing and refused to have any part of it, whereas Spain changed to UTC+1 in 1940 as a gesture of solidarity with Nazi Germany rather than take part in the war. I think Holland/Belgium were put on German time during one of the world wars and then when it was over decided they preferred it that way anyway and never went back.
World War II and other events had a part in that, but from what I've seen the biggest justification nowadays for keeping CET is for the financial markets and so forth.
World War II and other events had a part in that, but from what I've seen the biggest justification nowadays for keeping CET is for the financial markets and so forth.
It makes sense to keep things the way they are nowadays, yes, but making economic co-operation between countries easier wasn't the reason the timezones of Europe became they way they are.
Only if you're hiking everyday, otherwise you're still on "normal life sleep schedule". An extra hour of daylight in the evening is useful for outdoor activities. Unless you immediately start moving as soon as you wake up, having sunlight very early in the morning isn't that useful. Without DST, we'd have a 5:30 AM sunrise right now and 4:15 am sunrise in late June. Would be a pain to have a sleep schedule to accommodate that.
With the hiking example, you'd also go to sleep earlier the previous night. But in real life you can't just reorganise everything to work around you.
It's been my experience that with no DST, while it won't necessarily change your schedule, it makes it easier to stick to, and by that I mean you wake up and get out of bed easily and at night you're ready for bed earlier, so that's good if you're someone who goes to bed too late than you really should.
It's not really a huge advantage, but I think it's about as relevant as the extra hour of sun at night argument to have DST.
It makes sense to keep things the way they are nowadays, yes, but making economic co-operation between countries easier wasn't the reason the timezones of Europe became they way they are.
It really dosn't the timezones in Europe are all wrong.
Another interesting location is the point where Norwegian, Finnish and Russian borders meet. Each country is in a different timezone.
Yep, and even odder is that up in Finnmark some parts of Norway (UTC+1) are further east than some parts of Russia the other side of the border (UTC+3?). Considering Russia stays on summertime all year round now and Norway doesn't then presumably for part of the year there are places along the border where you can go west yet be putting the clocks forward by three hours.
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