The world is divided up into about 24 time zones.

We say about because some states, regions or countries

shift their times by half an hour from the strict 24 hour divisions. Standard time within most time zones is an
integral number of hours offset from a time scale called Coordinated Universal Time (abbreviated UTC),
maintained by a large number of very precise “atomic clocks” at laboratories around the world, including the
U.S. Naval Observatory. For nontechnical purposes, we can presume that Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is
the same as Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT), although their exact definitions differ

To translate UTC into your local time, use the following table:
United States
|Atlantic Daylight Time|>. subtract 3 hours from UTC|
|Atlantic Standard Time|>. subtract 4 hours from UTC|
|Eastern Daylight Time|>. subtract 4 hours from UTC|
|Eastern Standard Time|>. subtract 5 hours from UTC|
|Central Daylight Time|>. subtract 5 hours from UTC|
|Central Standard Time|>. subtract 6 hours from UTC|
|Mountain Daylight Time|>. subtract 6 hours from UTC|
|Mountain Standard Time|>. subtract 7 hours from UTC|
|Pacific Daylight Time|>. subtract 7 hours from UTC|
|Pacific Standard Time|>. subtract 8 hours from UTC|
|Alaska Daylight Time|>. subtract 8 hours from UTC|
|Alaska Standard Time|>. subtract 9 hours from UTC|
|Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time|>. subtract 10 hours from UTC|
|Samoa Standard Time|>. subtract 11 hours from UTC|
Europe/Middle East
|Greenwich Mean Time|>. same as UTC|
|British Summer Time|>. add 1 hour to UTC|
|Central European Time|>. add 1 hour to UTC|
|Central European Summer Time|>. add 2 hours to UTC|
|Eastern European Time|>. add 2 hour to UTC|
|Eastern European Summer Time|>. add 3 hours to UTC|
|Charlie Time (Mid East)|>. add 3 hour to UTC|
|Delta Time (Mid East)|>. add 4 hour to UTC|
Australia
|Western Standard Time|>. add 8 hours to UTC|
|Western Summer Time|>. add 9 hours to UTC|
|Central Standard Time|>. add 9:30 hours to UTC|
|Central Summer Time|>. add 10:30 hours to UTC|
|Eastern Time|>. add 10 hours to UTC|
|Eastern Summer Time|>. add 11 hours to UTC|
Asia and Africa time zones

Examples of how to convert from UTC to your local time

Let’s say you live in Houston, Texas, which is in Central Standard Time (U.S.). To convert 18 UTC into your local time, subtract 6 hours, to get 12
CST. During daylight saving (summer) time, you would only subtract 5 hours, so 18 UTC would convert to 13 CDT.
Or, let’s say you’re in Paris, France, which is in Central European Time. To convert 18 UTC into your local time, add 1 hour, to get 19 CET. In
summer, add 2 hours to get 20 CEST.
When converting zone time to or from UTC, dates must be properly taken into account. For example, 10 March at 02 UTC is the same as 9 March at
21 EST (U.S.).
The table can also be used to determine the difference between the time observed in any two zones. For example, the table shows that Eastern
Standard Time is three hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time (U.S.).
Bottom line: The Earth has 24 time zones, but when astronomers mention a time, it’s often “Universal Time.” This article explains how to translate
Universal Time, or UTC, to your local time zone.
Daylight Saving Time begins at 2:00 a.m. local time on the second Sunday in March. On the first Sunday in November areas on Daylight Saving
Time return to Standard Time at 2:00 a.m. The names in each time zone change along with Daylight Saving Time. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
becomes Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), and so forth. Arizona, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa do not observe Daylight
Saving Time. Read more about the new federal law that took effect in March 2007 which extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeksGMT –

Greenwich Mean Time / Coordinated Universal Time (Standard Time)

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) has no offset fromCoordinated Universal Time. This time zone is in use during standard
time in: Europe, Africa, North America,Antarctica.

This time zone is often called Greenwich Mean Time.

Exercise 5 – Zone Time (ZT)

It would be impossible for a ship at sea to keep to the time of its longitude because (unless it is travelling due north or south) the
longitude will be constantly changing. For this reason, the sea areas of the Earth are divided into time zones which are 15o (or 1 hour)
apart. The central meridian of each zone is an exact number of hours distant from the Greenwich meridian so that zone time differs
from GMT by multiples of 1 hour. The time kept in each zone is the time of its central meridian and is plus or minus GMT depending on
the zone’s position east or west of Greenwich.

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 Time Zone System. The Earth is divided into 24 zones of 15o of longitude each, with the centre of the system being the Greenwich
meridian. Therefore, the centre zone (zone 0) lies between 7.5o W. and 7.5o E. The zones lying to the West of Greenwich are
numbered from +1 to +12 and those to the East from -1 to 12. The 12th zone is divided by the meridian 180o which is known as the
International Date Line. The two halves of the 12th zone are marked + or – depending on which side of the date line they lie.
The following table shows the centre meridian of each of the 24 time zones. It should be remembered that each zone is 15o wide and
extends 7.5o either side of its centre meridian. Thus, since the centre meridian of zone +4 is 60o W, it’s limits are 52.5o W to 67.5oW.

To Convert Zone Time to GMT. The time kept in zone 0 is GMT. To convert any other zone time to GMT, simply apply the sign and
number of the zone to the zone time. For example, if it is 1800 in zone +5, GMT will be 2300.
The Greenwich Date (G.D.) is obtained by converting the zone time and date to GMT
Example 1: ZT 0230(-8), 15 Apr
GD = ZT – 8 = 1830, 14 Apr.
Example 2: GD 0515, 25 Dec.
ZT(+10) = GD – 10 = 1915, 24 Dec
Exercise Questions
Question 1. A ship’s longitude is 35o,36’.5W. If GMT is 3h 35m 12s what is zone time?
Question 2. On 5 July, a ship’s longitude is 145o, 15’.33E. If zone time
1. If you were to look at a time-zone map, how would you see the different time zones?
A: it shows the zones on the scale
B: it shows the zones in the index
C: there are boundary lines
2.How many time zones are in the United States?
A: 2 B: 3 C: 5 D: 6
3.Which is not a time zone?
A: Atlantic B: Pacific C: Central D: Eastern
4. Earth is divided into how many time zones?
A: 4 B: 12 C: 24 D: 36
5. What is one advantage of having time zones?
A: to get to work on time
B: to make clock time the same for large parts of Earth
C: to be different than other parts of the country.
6. Denver is in Mountain time and Chicago is in Central time. If it's 7:00 P.M. in Denver, what time is it in Chicago?
A: 5:00 P.M. B: 6:00 P.M. C: 7:00 P.M. D: 8:00 P.M.
7.What is the time difference between Pacific time and Eastern time?
A: Pacific time is 3 hours earlier B: Pacific time is 3 hours later
C: Pacific time is 2 hours earlier D: Pacific time is 2 hours later
8. California is in Pacific time zone and Boston is in Eastern time zone. If it is 10:00 A.M. in Boston, what time is it in
California?
A: 1:00 P.M. B: 7:00 A.M. C: 12:00 P.M. D: 11:00 A.M.
9.If I live in the Central Time Zone and wanted to call my dad in the Pacific Time Zone, what would be the time
difference? A: 1 hour B: 2 hours C: 3 hours D: it would be the same time
10.What does the abbreviation EST stand for?
A: East, South Time B: Eastern Southern Time C: Eastern Standard Time D: none of the above
1.Explanation: Shading, colors, clocks, or the names of time zones are also ways to see the differences.
2. Explanation: Hawaii-Aleutian and Alaska are other time zones.
3. Explanation: Mountain Time Zone is the last time zone.
8. Explanation: Eastern time zone is 3 hours later than Pacific time zone.
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