"Markku Grönroos" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] ...
    > "Andy Pandy" <[email protected]> kirjoitti
    > viestissä:[email protected]...
    > >
    > >
    > > It's the same with time. Most of the world has chosen to approximate time
    > > by having
    > > hour wide time zones. Within the context of that approximation, the
    > > correct time zone
    > > for any place is as I have already defined it.
    > >
    > To choose it differently, doesn't mean it went wrong. For instance we cannot
    > say decently that Spain lies in the wrong time zone because it is CET.

Well that's convinced me.

--
Andy

"Hatunen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > >> >> >> Even at the Greenwich observatory, noon (on the clock) is not noon.
    > >> >> >> http://www.sundialsoc.org.uk/
    > >> >> >> Relative to local mean time, the sun is 16 minutes 26 seconds fast.
    > >> >> >> ( In other words, the Equation of Time is -16:26 )
    > >> >> >
    > >> >> >Yes, because the solar day varies in length. Solar noon in currently about
    > >11:44
    > >> >on
    > >> >> >the Greenwich meridian. In February solar noon will be about 12:15.
    > >> >> >
    > >> >> >On average, solar noon on the Greenwich meridian is at 12:00 GMT. Note the M
in
    > >> >GMT -
    > >> >> >*mean* time - ie average.
    > >> >>
    > >> >> This is a consequence of having instituted standard time, of
    > >> >> course. Previously, noon was that moment the sun passed over the
    > >> >> local meridian so that noon was at a different time for towns
    > >> >> even a short distance apart east-west.
    > >> >
    > >> >Mean time is a different issue to standard time.
    > >>
    > >> Well, yeah. And ...?
    > >> >
    > >> >AIUI "standard time" means that Bristol has the same time as London.
    > >>
    > >> Yeah. And...?
    > >>
    > >> >"Mean time" means all days are averaged in length, rather than solar noon to
solar
    > >> >noon which varies throughout the year.
    > >>
    > >> Yeah. And ...? What has that to do with what I said?
    > >
    > >Kin hell, is it that hard?
    > >
    > >We were discussing why solar noon is 16 minutes early at the Greenwich
observatory.
    > Maybe you were.
    > >You wrote "This is a consequence of having instituted standard time, of course."
    > >
    > >It isn't. It's a consequence of mean time.
    > 12:00 GMT *is* standard time. But it is standardized to mean noon
    > on the Greenwich meridian.

Oh stop digging.

    > I think I'm looking at the same Wikipedia article you did.

So *that's* where you get your information from. Explains a lot.

--
Andy

Arwel Parry wrote:
    >semiretired writes

    >>Has everybody forgotten that an attempt to move the UK closer
    >>to CET failed because of the unacceptability of a 10am winter
    >>dawn? (P.S. DON'T MENTION THE WAR)

    >Why not? ...... Arwel Parry

Because IIRC Britain was effectively on CET except
it was called Summertime and Double Summer Time

Markku Grönroos wrote:

    > "Andy Pandy" <[email protected]> kirjoitti
    > viestissä:[email protected]...
    >
    >>It's the same with time. Most of the world has chosen to approximate time
    >>by having
    >>hour wide time zones. Within the context of that approximation, the
    >>correct time zone
    >>for any place is as I have already defined it.
    >
    > To choose it differently, doesn't mean it went wrong. For instance we cannot
    > say decently that Spain lies in the wrong time zone because it is CET.
    >
    >

It does result in strange relationships. Most of Spain is West of
Greenwich but the time that they use is that of the zone East of there.

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006 17:17:25 +0000, Miss L. Toe wrote :

    >
    > "Frank F. Matthews" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    >> On another note regarding time. Why is it that British time is earlier
    >> than the time in parts of Spain that are to the west?
    >> Why not adopt a common time with the nearby parts of Europe?
    > Why doesnt everyone use GMT ?
Because England is on an Island.
The time flows equally for everybody, but the hour you adopt for noon is
a mere convention.
Continentals, except Portugal, found more convenient to use the same
convention. Spain could have stuck to GMT because the border is generally
very visible, and except for a small part of Catalunia, completely west of
the Greenwich meridian.

Changing time twice a year is another subject, and probably a nuisance.

JE

--
Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do
it himself. -- A.H. Weiler