Time zones: compare clocks carefully

Earth rotates, so different longitudes experience daylight at different times. Civil time zones let communities use shared clock times. Their boundaries are chosen for practical and political reasons; they are not simply equal strips on a globe.

Offsets describe a local time relative to Coordinated Universal Time, UTC. Some places change their offset seasonally for daylight saving time. For a real meeting, check the city and date rather than assuming the difference stays the same all year.

Worked example

At 14:00 UTC, a place using UTC+2 reads 16:00. A place using UTC−5 reads 09:00. The clocks are seven hours apart for these stated offsets.

Practice with fixed offsets

1. At 18:00 UTC, what time is UTC+3?
2. At 02:00 UTC on Tuesday, what time and day is UTC−5?
3. Two locations use UTC+1 and UTC+5:30. How far apart are their clocks?

Keep exploring in social studies: hemispheres, compass directions, and the seven continents.