![]() And while most time zones are defined as being a whole number of hours different from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC a modern version of the outdated "Greenwich Mean Time"), some choose to align their clocks more precisely with the cycles of the sun by shifting them a half hour or even a quarter hour forward or back.ĭepending on a country's laws, redrawing the boundaries between time zones can be as simple as a local assembly voting to reset the area's clocks, or a president signing an order to modify the nation's time zones. ![]() Others, especially if their territory is very wide from west to east, divide the country up into several time zones. Many governments choose one time for the whole country, putting themselves unofficially inside a bigger time zone with other countries that set their clocks to the same time. Except for in the open ocean, where time zones are standardized by a loose agreement between fleets and ship operators, the dividing lines are set independently by each country's government, or even by local governments below the national level. But surprisingly, there's actually no international organization that determines time zones. It's an organized way of letting clocks in each part of the world hit noon around the middle of daylight hours, even if it's midnight on the other side of the world. The system of dividing the world into time zones is accepted all around the world, in principle. ![]() See the close-ups below for interactive, before-and-after illustrations of time zone changes during 2016.Īrticle and additional graphics work by Evan Centanni For more on changes to countries and borders in 2016, check out our main 2016 year in review article!įree map of world time zones from Wikimedia Commons, up-to-date for the beginning of 2017. ![]() This article is a spin-off from our popular yearly review of political geography events. ![]()
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