Mike what is the deal with the time.

[Ron Dickey]

I thought GMT was Mountain but even Dean who lives in my time zone say's 1:20 am and he understandes computers better then I. it is 8:30 pm .

I had to reset mine -3 now I will have to go -6 is this out of england?
Ron D.

[asianflava]

GMT is Greenwich Mean time, Zero time, or Zulu time. It is the designated place where one day ends and the next begins. 0deg 0min 0sec Longitude.

[Larry Messaros]

I thought GMT was Mountain but even Dean who lives in my time zone say's 1:20 am and he understandes computers better then I. it is 8:30 pm .

I had to reset mine -3 now I will have to go -6 is this out of england?
Ron D.

Ron,

For you and Dean you should have it set for GMT - 8 hours. That should correct the time difference.

[angib]

GMT is Greenwich Mean time, Zero time, or Zulu time. It is the designated place where one day ends and the next begins. 0deg 0min 0sec Longitude.

Here is today's history lesson.

Greenwich Mean Time was 'created' when the advent of railways in Britain highlighted that different cities were using different times and matching the train timetables to a variable local time was proving impossible. So a standardised time for Britain was created and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich defined it. The full story is here.

You might find the GMT web site useful - I find it a reasonably accurate way of setting my PC clock.

A separate issue is the Prime (or Greenwich) Meridian which defines where east and west start. This was the subject of much discussion that was eventually settled between the European countries when Britian indicated that it would consider recognising the metric system if everyone agreed to use Greenwich as the prime meridian*. As Britain was the dominant world power at the time, a lot of the world was using British nautical charts which put 0 deg at Greenwich, so it was the easiest way to go.

And here's a Dave from Penn State Uni doing the right thing on a visit to Greenwich by standing astride the Prime Meridian, with one foot in the western hemisphere and the other in the east:


(Brnnnnnng!) That's the end of class for today.

Andrew

* I believe the alternative was that the British delegation to the conference were going to gather up all their toys and not let the other children play with them, so everyone quickly agreed.

[Ron Dickey]

Thanks thanks I really really really love learning new stuff, , I love it almost as much as sex well almost as much.

thanks for the picture.



Ron D.

[Ron Dickey]

Hey It worked at -8 I am right on time!!