We discuss standard time in unit 2 and how the US is divided into 4 time zones (and why this was done). Canada also has time zones. If you travel towards Maine and into Canada, you go into the Atlantic time zone ... no problem there. However, as you continue moving eastward into Newfoundland you find something unusual as you enter that time zone. Each question is worth 5 points.
What is unusual about Newfoundland Time Zone?
I leaned this quite by accident. Upon traveling to Newfoundland I was amazed to find that this time zone is only a half hour away from its neighboring Atlantic time zone.
Why was it done this way? That is, give a logical reason (in your own words please) why this policy was adopted.
First you have to recall why we have time zones in the first place. Time zones are a convenience so everyone in that zone reads the same time. However, it is also an annoyance because everyone sets their clocks to a sun along one of the lines of longitude (increments of 15 degrees from Greenwich .... Wisconsinites go by a sun along the 90th degree of longitude) . The farther you are from one of those lines, the larger the discrepancy between your clock and the sun (as read by a sundial). Now look at the maps below that shows the geography of Newfoundland. None of these critical lines of longitude go through the island! If you were to follow tradition and offset your clocks a full hour from your neighbor (the Atlantic time zone), the critical line of longitude is far off to the east . You would be setting your clock for a sun far to the east of anyone on the island. So why not just offset by a half hour which actually does go through the island? This minimizes the discrepancy between their clocks and their sun.
Now if you ask my humble opinion, the better choice would have been to offset the time zone by only 15 minutes from the Atlantic time zone. Why? Well, just look at that map. You would want the center of your time zone to go through the center of your domain. At one time, Newfoundland had an autonomous choice of what to do. They went for a half our from the adjacent Atlantic time zone but that places the center of their chosen time zone at the far eastern tip of their island. If the goal is to try to get there clocks more in sync with the sun, a 15 minute offset would be perfect, but nobody asked my opinion.
What is unusual about the time zones in Antarctica (from all the other land masses on the Earth)? What time zone is used in Antarctica?
Antarctica encompasses all 24 times zones because all the lines of longitude converge at the poles. Each individual station gets to pick whichever time zone it wants ... usually to the country running the station or the closest habited location off the continent.
Why is daylight saving time pointless at any location near the poles of the Earth?
The poles experience 6 months of daylight followed by 6 months of perpetual darkness. Why shift time if the sun never rises or sets in a 24 hour period?