Chapter 1
The birth of global time
Chapter 2
The zigzagging International Date Line
Chapter 3
Extreme time zone anomalies
Chapter 4
Living on the edge of time
YOUR GOAL
Master of Mapping global time zones
Ch 1 · The birth of global time
misslily Global Time Zones Established
In D.C., in '84... (call) The world's clocks, they synced them up, for evermore! (response)
misslily An international conference in 1884 chose London's Greenwich Observatory as the official starting point for global longitude.
misslily The expansion of rapid railway travel forced the creation of synchronized time zones to prevent deadly train collisions.
BETA
misslily Spin the day dial to discover how crossing the date line changes today into tomorrow.
Fun Fact
Missing a train: Sandford Fleming missed a train in Ireland in 1876 due to a misprinted PM/AM schedule, inspiring him to advocate for standard global 24-hour time.
Glossary
prime meridian (noun)
An imaginary line of longitude designated as zero degrees, from which other longitudes are measured. In 1884, delegates from twenty-six nations gathered in Washington, D.C., to select Greenwich as the official baseline.
An imaginary line of longitude designated as zero degrees, from which other longitudes are measured. In 1884, delegates from twenty-six nations gathered in Washington, D.C., to select Greenwich as the official baseline.
Quiz
Which engineer proposed the system of 24 global time zones after missing a train?
Quiz
In what year did international delegates establish Greenwich as the Prime Meridian?
Quiz
Which country abstained from the 1884 vote and kept using its own meridian for decades?