Posted on 06/22/2018 8:33:57 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Also odd is that Arizona is on Mountain time. It borders a coastal state, it’s only about 300 miles from the coast, yet it’s on Mountain time zone.
Well, looking at the map of the United States, AZ is pretty much in-line south of ID, MT, WY, and UT, which are all on Mountain time (except the ID panhandle, which is on Pacific time to be more in sync with Spokane, WA), so it makes more sense based on sun location, rather than physical distance from the coast.
Hell, Reno, NV (also on Pacific time) is farther west than Los Angeles, CA. Use that as a bar bet...
And here I thought they defined Mountain time zone on the Rocky Mountains, that run up through >>Colorado.
It’s not like the Central time zone is actually in the middle. They’re just names.
Also, you’ll note parts of Arizona extends about 150 of miles west of Nevada’s eastern boundary which puts Arizona closer to the Pacific coast than all the states you mentioned.
Because...Trump!!!
In fact, straight line, the Arizona border is only about 155 miles from it’s border to the water on the Pacific Ocean...Mountain time zone? I don’t see it.
Well names should at least mean something. The Rocky Mountains which extend from New Mexico to Canadian border, never touches Arizona.
In fact, from my perspective, the time zones seemed like they just pulled them out of a hat.
They think it’ll give them more daylight hours to traffic in more illegals.
But the Rockies are entirely contained within the Mountain time zone. So it does have meaning. Sort of.
Not that far. 50 miles, max. Not 150. Longitudinally, AZ lines up directly under UT, and most of eastern Idaho and Western MT. For solar noon, it makes more sense for it to be Mountain time, not Pacific. Distance from the ocean shouldn't be the determining factor, solar noon should be.
Aren’t they worried that having an extra hour of daylight during the 4 months or so that will be affected will increase global warming?
Which mountains are you talking about? Is not mountain time zone based on the Rocky Mountains which extends to Canada from New Mexico, which never touches Arizona?
If I am not mistaken Mountain Time refers to how the Rocky Mountains.
Same with Central time zone. It’s not central at all. I find the names of these zones to be misleading at best.
Regarding your point about solar noon. If that’s the case, why is Mountain time zone not a direct or straight line from north to south? How does that work?
Politics, mostly. Some for state boundaries, some for economic reasons (look how wide the Eastern Time Zone is).
“Not so. Arizona has been this way for a long time”
Not true, Arizona stays on standard time year round. California is proposing staying on DST
A better solution might be to narrow the time zones a bit and everyone stay on the same one all year. The difference in sunrise and sunset from the eastern to western end of a zone can be quite dramatic
Prior to 1883, there were no time zones in the United States or Canada (or the rest of the world for that matter). Times were set locally, usually based on solar noon in that particular area, and the time was kept by a village clock or the like.
In 1883, standard time zones were created by railroad companies to better schedule trains in the U.S. and Canada. This was not law, and not readily adopted in many places (except by railroad stations/terminals).
We didn't actually get official time zones in the United States until 1918, and these were established (along with the much-hated-and-debated daylight savings time) with the Standard Time Act of 1918. Time zones have been in flux since, as politics or borders change, or for economic reasons, but they have shifted over the last 100 years.
Ya, I know the basic history...But the fact remains, they make little sense, as I alluded to earlier.
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