Richard Johnson asks:
>
> Here we are on Terra, flower of humaniti. (Maybe it's a poppy,
> buut that's another topic.) My question deals with the Prime
> Meridian, and with the time zone associated with it.
>
> Does the "prime" (what's its real name?) time zone extend from
> 7 deg, 30min E to 7, 30 W -- or does it go from 0, 0 to 15 (E|W)?
In principle 7 1/2 E to 7 1/2 W, but the desire to have all of a
country share the same time (unless the country is real big) makes for
some strange twists. Spain, which is practically directly below the
British Isles, nevertheless keeps to CET (that's zone +1), while
Portugal keeps GMT (zone 0). The bit of western Africa that pokes into
zone -1 keeps GMT too. Iceland, which is practically all in zone -1
(with a little bit poking into zone -2) strangely enough keeps GMT too.
All of Norway keeps CET, even the bit which is directly above Finland.
Finland keeps Eastern European (zone +2), as does the Balkans, but
Germany, Austria and Poland keeps CET, which meant that when you cross
into Russia you jump two hours, from +1 to +3. China sticks to one time
for the whole country despite straddling thrree timezones.
Hans Rancke
University of Copenhagen
[email removed]