Time Zones Trivia Quiz

Answer: November 1, 1884

They were adopted at the International Meridian Conference held in Washington, DC.

Answer: 6

Aleutian Islands and Hawaii: UTC-10 hours; Alaska mainland: UTC-9 hours; Pacific: UTC-8 hours; Mountain: UTC-7 hours;} Central: UTC-6 hours; Eastern: UTC-5 hours.

Answer: 1

It spans the longitudes of five standard zones, but it has been decreed that the nation as a whole use just one: UTC+8:00.

Answer: Kiribati and Christmas Island

The islands of Kiribati are spread across the equator and the 180th meridian, making Kiribati the only country in the world located simultaneously in all four hemispheres: the Northern, Southern, Western, and Eastern hemispheres.

The International Date Line is defined to place Kiribati in UTC+plus time, almost reaching 150°W. This brings Kiribati's Line Islands into the same day as the Gilbert Islands and places them in the most advanced time zone on Earth: UTC+14.

Answer: Arizona

Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time. It does not change its clocks, so its time is the same as Pacific Daylight Time during the summer.

Within Arizona, the Navajo nation (in the northeastern corner of the state) *does* observe Daylight Saving. And to further confuse things, the Hopi reservation (two enclaves within the Navajo nation) *does not* observe DST.

Answer: 38

Mathematically, each one-hour time zone encompasses 15 degrees sector of the Earth, indicating a 1-hour difference in mean solar time. This can be seen when looking at a Mercator time zone map over open ocean by parallel north-south lines.

However, on land, countries and their subdivisions want their populations to follow the same time wherever possible. For example, in the United States, time zones are mainly defined by following state borders. There are also cases where a city's metro area extends into a neighboring state, so that portion of the neighboring state follows the larger city's time zone instead of their state's (e.g., Gary, IN follows Central Time like Chicago, IL instead of Eastern Time like the rest of Indiana).

Elsewhere in the world, certain areas were deemed to be positioned such that whole-hour times didn't work well, and are offset by 30 or 45 minutes from nearby zones.

The totals for the types of time zones:
==> 25 standard whole-hour time zones, ranging from UTC-12 to UTC+12. The UTC±12 zones are adjacent, but have the International Date Line running between them.
==>2 extended zones, UTC+13 and UTC+14. These are in the Western Hemisphere, which normally have UTC-minus times zones. But to be in the same calandar day as their nearby countries, their time zones are UTC+plus.
==>8 half-hour offset time zones.
==>3 45-minute offset time zones.

Answer: Oregon and Florida

Most of the Oregon county of Malheur, on the eastern side of the state, follows Mountain Time. The northwestern counties of Florida follow Central Time. These time zones are one hour different.

However, during the time change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time (at 2 AM on the first Sunday of November), clocks in the US are set back one hour. So at 2 AM in the aforementioned Florida counties, it becomes 1 AM, which is still the time in Mountain Time, including Malheur County, OR. For the next hour, these two areas in west and east coast states have the same time. Then at 2AM in Oregon, the time sets back to 1AM, and the two areas are again one hour different in time.

Answer: Newfoundland and Labrador

All of the island of Newfoundland and the southeastern tip of Labrador observe Newfoundland Standard Time (UTC-3:30) and Newfoundland Daylight Time (UTC-2:30). The rest of the province observes Atlantic Standard/Daylight Time.

In 1988, Newfoundland observed double daylight time, meaning they set their clocks ahead by 2 hours. From April 3 to October 30 their time was UTC-1:30. This is the only year they did this, and now observes regular daylight time, setting their time ahead just one hour during the April-October period.

Answer: Sunrise and sunset times do not vary enough to justify it

DST is not usually observed near the Equator, where sunrise and sunset times do not vary enough to justify it. Also, it is often not observed in places at high latitudes where a one-hour clock shift would provide little benefit. Consequently, only 34 percent of the world's countries use DST.

Answer: France

France uses 12 time zones. Although Metropolitan France (the portion in the European mainland) uses UCT+1:00, its overseas departments use local time zones. These departments aren't considered simply territories, but are a part of France. (This is much like the Hawaiian Islands being a US state, even thought it is not connected to North America at all.)

These French time zone are:
UTC−10:00 - most of French Polynesia
UTC−09:30 - Marquesas Islands
UTC−09:00 - Gambier Islands
UTC−08:00 - Clipperton Island
UTC−04:00 (AST) - Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin
UTC−03:00 (PMST) - French Guiana, Saint Pierre and Miquelon
UTC+01:00 (CET) - Metropolitan France
UTC+03:00 - Mayotte
UTC+04:00 - Réunion
UTC+05:00 - Kerguelen Islands, Crozet Islands
UTC+11:00 - New Caledonia
UTC+12:00 - Wallis and Futuna