Planet Earth moves in orbit around the Sun, which heats the planet, provides the necessary light to plants and living beings that depend on photosynthesis. But the Sun from time to time hides behind the horizon, then reappears. And even the day when it shines is not the same everywhere. In one place on the planet, the Sun is at its zenith, while in another it tends to the horizon.
The planet's time zone system
To keep track of time accurately, mankind had to divide the surface of the Earth into time zones. These are zones that correspond to 1/24 (by the number of hours in a day) of the length of the parallel at a particular latitude. Less common are zones with a difference of thirty minutes in relation to the neighboring zone. Below is a table of world time zones and the difference with Moscow. The reference point is the time zone of the Greenwich Observatory in the UK.
In Russia, as the largest country in the world, there are eleven such time zones. The countdown starts from the westernmost point, Kaliningrad, and continues to Moscow, where the time difference with Greenwich Mean Time is three hours. In Magadan, the easternmost time zone, the difference with Greenwich Mean Time is already twelve hours.
Time Zone Difference Overview
The table of the difference between the time zones of the world and Moscow will show how large the distances are on Earth and how different the time of day can be even within the same country. Each time zone has its own name. In the table of time zones of the world, taking into account the time difference with Moscow, time zones are also reflected, where the time difference is not an even hour, but half. This is due to the historical peculiarities of state borders and timing.
| Timezone | Where applicable (main points) | The difference with Moscow |
| -12 | -15 | |
| -11 | Samoa | -14 |
| -10 | Aleutian Islands | -13 |
| -9 | Alaska | -12 |
| -8 | California | -11 |
| -7 | Arizona | -10 |
| -6 | Central America | -9 |
| -5 | Cuba | -8 |
| -4 | Venezuela | -7 |
| -3:30 | Newfoundland | -6:30 |
| -3 | Brazil | -6 |
| -2 | Atlantic Ocean | -5 |
| -1 | Azores | -4 |
| 0 | UK | -3 |
| +1 | Western Europe | -2 |
| +2 | Eastern Europe | -1 |
| +3 | Russia | 0 |
| +3:30 | Iran | +0:30 |
| +4 | Azerbaijan | +1 |
| +4:30 | Afghanistan | +1:30 |
| +5 | Kazakhstan | +2 |
| +5:30 | India | +2:30 |
| +5:45 | Nepal | +2:45 |
| +6 | Bangladesh | +3 |
| +6:30 | Myanmar | +3:30 |
| +7 | Mongolia | +4 |
| +8 | China | +5 |
|
+8:30 |
DPRK | +5:30 |
| +8:45 | Australia | +5:45 |
| +9 | Japan | +6 |
| +9:30 | Australia | +6:30 |
| +10 | Papua New Guinea | +7 |
| +10:30 | Australia | +7:30 |
| +11 | Solomon Islands | +8 |
| +12 | Marshall Islands | +9 |
| +12:45 | New Zealand | +9:45 |
| +13 | Kiribati | +10 |
| +14 | Kiribati | +11 |
The line where dates change
As can be seen from the table of time zone differences between the world and Moscow, there are also such subtleties as the time difference of 24 hours in areas that are several kilometers from each other. For example, residents of the Magadan region, who have twelve o'clock on the clock, can look through binoculars through binoculars on the first of January, as it will be the thirty-first of December in Alaska. Between time zones with time UTC + 12 and UTC-12 there is a line delimiting dates. In the table of the difference between the time zones of the world and Moscow, the deviation from Moscow time is +8 and -15 hours, respectively. Traveling through the international date line from west to east, you can get into the day already lived, while returning from east to west, you can get into the future for one day.
Features of time zones
Theoretically, time zones should be equal, like the meridians of the Earth. But it's not. You cannot force half of a city or region to live according to one time, and half - according to another. Synchronous work is important for a single holistic economic and territorial system, therefore, within the framework of small states, groups of islands in the ocean, the time zone either expands or narrows, repeating the administrative boundaries of the territories. In addition to thesedeviations, there is a separate group of territories where the time deviation from the neighboring time zone is thirty or even forty-five minutes. These zones are also indicated in the table of the world time zone difference with Moscow. Such time zones have developed historically, they are not related to the astronomy of a particular region.
Except for regions with their own non-standard standard time, above 60 degrees north latitude, time zones do not follow natural formal boundaries, since they are less populated and in these latitudes the lighting conditions are not the same as in Moscow. Phenomena such as polar day and polar night are already beginning there.
Russian time zones: features
From the table of the time difference between the time zones of the world and Moscow, it can be seen that Russia occupies a significant number of time zones, as many as eleven. Despite reforms and time zone adjustments, their number will always be eleven, as this is an astronomical necessity. But time zone boundaries are constantly changing. In modern Russia, they are tied to economically closed administrative formations, regions, and territories, for which work in a single temporary space is important. Time zones are not just lines on a map. Compliance with standard time when calculating the savings in energy resources gives enormous numbers. If the time zone of the Moscow region is moved even by an hour, then the whole country will lose billions of rubles. Because the indicated difference in time zones of the world with Moscowin the table is just useful information. In the modern world, dials with Moscow time hang on all world exchanges for the correct synchronization of trading on these exchanges.
Why do I need to know the time of another time zone
In modern Russia, which is closely integrated into the world economy, knowledge of time zones is important in every industry. Tables of the difference between the time zones of the world and Moscow for some professions are a reference book. Numerous purchasing managers working with Chinese suppliers understand that calling Shanghai at the end of the working day in Moscow is silly, since it is already late at night in China. And calling the USA at the beginning of the Moscow working day is also not worth it. There are many amazing things on planet Earth, and such things as time zones, date lines, etc. only emphasize the uniqueness and complexity of life, dictated by global astronomical phenomena. Such as the movement of the Earth relative to the Sun and the height of geographic latitude, which underlie the calculation of time by all mankind.
