Coordinated Universal Time: why and how was it introduced?

The correct timing is very important in the modern world, when the rhythm of life has increased significantly. But the difficulty lies in the availability of different time zones - after all, when communicating with people from other parts of the world it is important to have some kind of single reference point. For this, global coordinated time is needed. But how did people come to such a system?

What is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)?

In today's world, the greatest universality is valued - a single currency, language, etc. But a single time zone is simply impossible to enter, because when in one hemisphere a day, in another - night. In addition, there is a so-called local solar time, according to how the luminaries move across the sky from east to west. But time zones should be somehow connected with each other, have a certain starting point. For this, there is UTC, the World Coordinated Time. It is from him that the states are pushing, setting the clock on their territory. But how did this system come about?

The history of introducing a single standard

Initially, humanity determined time by the Sun. The moment when it passed its highest point, was adopted in the afternoon. It is on this principle that the sundial worked. But such a method was not accurate, in addition, the development of society required greater universality. Over time, when new lands were discovered, and people realized that it was required to enter time zones and bind them together primarily for navigation purposes, a GSM system (Greenwich Mean Time) was invented, named so because the meridian, According to which time was counted, passed through the observatory in Greenwich.

By the way, before the introduction of this standard, different countries used their own zero points. As a rule, the average meridians in this case passed through local observatories, in France - Paris, in Russia - Pulkovo, etc. But the lack of a single standard was inconvenient. And in 1884, the zero was taken by the Greenwich Meridian. It not only compares the clock, but also determines the geographical coordinates - longitude.

Now this standard is called UTC, or World Coordinated Time. Unlike GMT, it is compared with the atomic clock, and every 2-3 years the scale is corrected as an "extra" second. This is done in order to maximize the time to astronomical.

Designation of time zones

Time in other meridians is counted from Greenwich. For simplicity, it is denoted as the difference with it, that is, UTC + 1, UTC-8, etc. Far from always distinguishing time zones is the meridians, because in some cases this would be somewhat inconvenient. This, by the way, was the reason for some very interesting features of timing in different countries. But this will be discussed a little later.

Using

So, when it became clear that such a coordinated time, it is worth discussing how it is used in the modern world. First, the zero meridian is still relevant for navigation - both in the ocean and in the air. Secondly, globalization left its imprint on the need for a single countdown. Conference calls between people located on different ends of the planet are appointed by UTC.

By the way, in some territories time zones do not actually exist. It's about the Arctic and the Antarctic, where time is conditionally taken for UTC + 0. In fact, researchers at polar stations can count the hours as they like. The same applies to astronauts working in Earth's orbit.

Interesting Facts

The system, including the World Coordinated Time, was formed quite a long time, which resulted in rather curious features.

• UTC abbreviation does not have official decoding. In 1970, when this standard was introduced, variants of TUC (Temps Universel Coordonné) and CUT (Coordinated Universal Time) were considered. As a result, it was decided to stop at neutral UTC.
• Novosibirsk was founded on two banks of the river, exactly along which passes the hourly meridian. And for a long time in the city there were two times. Before the construction of the first bridge in 1955, this did not cause any particular inconvenience, because the two parts of Novosibirsk were practically not connected to one another. But in 1958 the city moved to a single countdown.
• Logically, the biggest time difference between two points on the Earth should be 24 hours. But in reality there are 26 time zones. In the Pacific, two island states are relatively close to each other: American Samoa and the Archipelago Line. The difference between the time on them is 25 hours. It happened because the Lane Islands, previously owned by Great Britain, counted their time from the Australian, and it turned out to be UTC + 14. And Samoa operates UTC-11, in accordance with the difference with continental America.
• In some regions of Australia, sometimes there are horizontal time zones. This is due to the fact that not all states switch to winter time.
• Not always the difference with Greenwich is an equal number of hours. Nepal operates UTC + 5: 45, in some cities in Australia +8: 45, and in the Chatham archipelago in New Zealand +12: 45.