WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Time Zones 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:06.880 Hey, and welcome to the podcast, well the short stuff, 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.640 I should say, let me just start over, Hey and 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:13.960 welcome to the short Stuff. Nice work. Thanks. Do you 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.920 think we'll edit that first part out? Nope? Okay, I'm Josh. 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:21.919 There's Chuck the contrarian and always saying nope, and there's 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.480 Jerry over there who just kind of keeps quiet because 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:26.759 she knows that's how we like it. And like I said, 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:28.880 this is short stuff, let's go that's right. And we're 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.640 talking about time zones, um, and the sort of weirdness 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:38.560 of time zones in this modern age. It is very weird, um, 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:40.280 And they're kind of new. And it makes sense that 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:44.000 they're kind of new because before it was really difficult 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.599 to move from place to place in any sort of 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.680 quick manner. So it didn't really matter what time it 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:57.080 was in some town a hundred miles away from you. Yeah, Like, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.960 there was no way of knowing really what time it was, 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:02.640 and by the time you walked over there to ask, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.959 it was so much later than it had been when 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.040 you left it. Really, the whole thing just didn't matter. 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.520 But once we started to invent ways of locomoting more quickly, um, 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:21.199 the world got a lot smaller, And I really don't 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:23.120 like that term. For some reason, I just feel like 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.679 I need to confess this. The world got smaller, the 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:29.520 world shrank. I don't know why it really bothers me, Okay, 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:34.319 because right, well, you can make a flat circle smaller 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.959 and by the way, I am absolutely not flatter. What's 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:40.200 funny is that you have to like specify that in 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.120 this day and age, you know, so, um, as the 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:49.280 world got smaller, um, then suddenly it did kind of 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.480 matter what time it was in the town a hundred 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.480 miles away, because you might have a connecting train you 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:56.680 had to pick up there, and you needed to make 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.480 sure that that train was coordinating with the train that 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:01.920 you were getting there on so that you could reach 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.360 there by some designated time. And that didn't always happen 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:07.880 at first, no, I mean it was a real problem. 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.600 People were late for trains, they were missing their trains. 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:16.480 That was uh. There were circumstances where trains would be 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:19.080 close to colliding one to one another because of the 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.800 schedules and the times. Yeah, I mean, if everyone isn't 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.839 agreed on what time it is and you have an 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:32.200 interconnected train system, that's that can be extraordinarily problematic. Yeah, 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:33.919 I mean, and this this was happening in Europe. In 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.160 the US, it was a real mess because we had 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.280 local time zones. And I don't mean regional, I mean 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.680 like every city in the US. So we had three 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.120 hundred time zones in the United States. Uh. And then 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.800 eventually they said, all right, we need this is unwieldy. 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.880 Let's whittle it down to one hundred time zones, right. 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:56.959 And the reason why there were so many is because 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.519 up to this point, everybody basically set there or watch 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:03.600 or their sun dial or what have you to noon 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.440 when the sun was directly overhead. Everybody knew it was 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.840 noon in your town. But that doesn't mean it's noon 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.520 somewhere else. It means it's noon in your town. And 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.240 so everybody, every town basically had their own time zone, right. So, um, 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.040 when they whittled it down to a hundred, that was 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.280 a vast improvement, but it still wasn't quite where they 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.560 needed it to be because there were still a lot 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.119 of problems with it. And so a scientist his last 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.040 name was Fleming, he was Scottish, and his first name 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.919 was Sir Sandford. Well, the sir wasn't his first name. 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.600 That was an honor honorific but the Sandford was his 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:41.320 first name, Sanford, Sir Sandford and sun fleming. Uh. And 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.520 he missed a train in eighteen seventy six, as the 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:49.120 legend goes, because of the timetable and the this you know, 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:54.080 screwy time zone thing, and he said, I'm through. He 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.120 got mad and he said, you know what I'm gonna do. 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.200 I'm going to divide the world in time zones, which 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:05.040 makes sense, spaced at one degree intervals all across the planet. 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:10.200 And everyone said, groundskeeper Willie, that's brilliant. Yeah that was 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:13.560 you just made short stuff special officially because it was 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:18.200 a rare chucked Scottish accent. I know it's the rarest, Yeah, 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.760 it is the rarest. So that's pretty smart. Twenty four 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:25.279 time zones makes a lot of sense. Um, that's how 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.480 it is today. You would think that's not the case. 0:04:27.520 --> 0:04:30.799 As a matter of fact, I believe there's thirty nine 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:34.280 time zones around the world. Yeah, that's what I saw. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.279 Thirty nine time zones, not twenty four. And to to 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.000 make the badness even more complete, um, some of these 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:43.960 time zones are offset not by a single hour like 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.160 it should be some people offset their time zones by 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.960 thirty minutes or forty five minutes, which is just like 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:54.479 just drop out of the world. Basically if you do that, 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.200 you know, so it's it's it's what they call an 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.080 s word show these days. But um, even that was 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.880 still an improvement from that hundred or three hundred something 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:07.920 in the US. And in the United States, we've had 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:15.719 four time zones Eastern, Um, Central Mountain, and Pacific for 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.280 I guess since the nineteenth century. Actually, as a matter 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.480 of fact, exactly in the nineteenth century, on November eight, 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:26.520 eight three, those were officially instituted not by the country 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.120 necessarily itself, but by the railroad companies who all agreed 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:35.720 finally on a uniform um time where it was at 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:39.680 any given point in the country, that's right. And they 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:43.160 actually when all the railroads chuck um set time on 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:47.680 this one specific day, they all changed to noon when 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.280 it reached noon standard time in their their time zone, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.120 which meant that each of those places had a noon 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.880 twice in one day. So it's very famously called the 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.320 day of two Noons. Amazing. I think so too. You 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:27.880 want to take a break, let's do it, okay, Alright, 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:33.320 so things are getting a little less unwieldy, are more wheeldy. 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.440 More we has that had a thing that's where I'm 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:40.200 casting my lot. Can something be wheeldy? I guess if 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.800 it can be unwieldy, surely it can be wheeldy too. 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:46.479 All right, So things are getting better. And then we 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.080 went off and invented planes, and then planes could get 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:53.480 places even quicker, and that just compresses the you know, 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:57.839 travel time even more. And then the Internet is invented, 0:06:57.920 --> 0:07:01.159 and all of a sudden, it's pretty much like everyone's 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.039 running on a seven culture all over the world. And 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.719 some people in recent years have looked up and said, 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.320 why do we have time zones anyway? Why can't we 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:16.800 just all agree to set our clocks on the same time. 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.760 Take a little bit of getting used to, but you'll 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.240 all be okay once you wrap your head around the 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:26.160 fact that a number is just some random shape that 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.400 you designate for where the sun is in the sky. Yeah. 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.800 I mean, that's absolutely true, and it is arbitrary and 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.440 totally artificial. But it's going to take a little while 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:41.480 to not think like that if we follow these guys advice. 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.120 If you asked me, yeah, we're talking specifically about a 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:52.240 man named Hanka. I'd say Hanky Hanky. Yeah, let's say Hanka. 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:54.360 It depends on where he's from. If you wanted to 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.600 be wrong, you can say Honka. He's a John's Hopkins 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:01.239 University professor of physics. And there's another guy named Richard 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.280 con Henry uh and they what they propose is just 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:10.080 a universal time, like I said, where everyone in the 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.880 world agrees on one thing, and that's to just set 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:16.440 our clocks the same, which I am totally down for. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:21.960 It does make sense. Um Honka and Heinry Um definitely 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.880 have a really good idea here, which is we all 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.560 set our clocks to UM Universal Time Coordinated UTC, which 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:32.720 used to be called Greenwich Mean time, which basically says 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.880 the prime meridian that goes through Greenwich, England is zero hours. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.760 It's also called Zulu time because Z for zero in 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:45.400 UM air trucker or plane speak, UM is zulu, Z 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.959 is zulu, I thot I think he means zed z 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:50.160 depending on who you're talking to. That's why they all 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.200 just call it zulu. So because they couldn't agree on 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.000 zero or zed right, right, But this is already happening. 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.640 And you know, like the military has been doing this, Uh, 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:02.400 financial traders do the US because it's just clearly the 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:05.360 better way to go. It is. It is because if 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.800 it's if it's say, um, it's nine o'clock at and 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.880 on the prime meridian nine o'clock am, then it's it 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.480 would be nine o'clock all over the world. The whole 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:18.080 world is based on what time it is on the 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:20.680 prime meridian. But here's the thing, and this is why 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:22.720 it's hard to wrap your head around this kind of thing. 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.640 That means then that rather than it being nine o'clock 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:31.319 eventually associated with the morning in your land, wherever you are, 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:37.600 nine am might take on an entirely different meaning, just 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.760 a completely different meaning, because that nine am might be 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:45.200 at what's two am to you? Now, Yeah, you just 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.319 gotta give up those things, man, give it up. Right. 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:50.680 We would have to totally decouple and it would be 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.640 so difficult that I think, uh Hanka and hein right 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:58.400 say um that it would take about a generation for 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:00.960 us to get used to it. In basically, they're saying 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.280 we have to just some of those of us alive 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:05.880 today have to die off, and then the younger generation 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:07.800 have to be raised like this for it not to 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:12.240 be weird to eat breakfast at like PM or something 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:14.600 like that, depending on where you are. Yeah, and I 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.959 think I mean that's for a full like, hey, it's 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.560 a little weird for me to completely go away. I 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.480 think inside a few years everyone would just be like, 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.120 all right, that, you know whatever. I used to call 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.160 this nine am, but now it's you know, twelve pm, right, um, 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.360 And again, I mean, you know me, I've gone off 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.280 before about I don't necessarily think it's arbitrary, but just 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:39.600 the symbolic nature of a number is just you know, 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:44.520 something man has slapped on. Time is an artificial human 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.760 construct for sure, and clocks like keeping time is even 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:51.960 more artificial. But there's some like real upsides to this, 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:56.400 to this idea, it's all upside so well, I think 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:58.360 the getting used to it part would be really weird. 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.480 Although it could be like such a distraction for the 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:03.640 entire world that we might just forget about all this 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.960 the bs quagmire. A lot of us find ourselves and 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.600 just be like this is cool. You know, who knows 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:14.240 but them. Some of the upsides are that if you 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:17.600 live on the western edge of a time zone, you 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:19.760 got to keep up with the eastern edge, and you 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.520 typically suffer from sleep deprivation chronically as a result of 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.400 living on the western edge of the time zone. That 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:29.520 would be gone, I think solely for business purposes and 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:36.199 travel purposes. The benefits are just so outrageously strong that 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:38.520 it just doesn't make any sense to do anything otherwise. 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:43.480 So can you explain something to me? How do how 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:45.920 does it get rid of something like jet lag? If 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.120 we're still traveling to some other part of the world 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.560 and the sun is still up or it's not up 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.280 and it should be for our our biological clocks. How 0:11:54.320 --> 0:11:57.120 does having the time be the same help that? Do 0:11:57.160 --> 0:11:59.640 you understand that? I don't think it does at all? Okay, 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:01.640 well then makes sense. Yeah, I mean I think you 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.720 would just you would still be going to bed super 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.160 early if you traveled to l A from the east coast. Uh, 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:13.439 it would just whatever symbol on your watch would be different. Yeah. Um, 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:18.040 but just booking travel, booking conference calls, like anything would 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:19.160 be a nice have to be like, well, this is 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:21.280 ten o'clock your time and nine o'clock my time. Just 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:25.000 it's just ten o'clock, right, It's just ten o'clock means 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.200 different things. To different people. Yes, exactly, you'd have to 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:31.320 there would be no more shootouts at high noon or 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.520 you know, we party till two in the morning, we 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.240 party till seven at night, right exactly all around the 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.960 world on where you are. Uh, it would it would 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:42.960 totally take some getting used to. But I just think 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:47.320 it's like, why not explore this well, because it would 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:50.480 it would be a significant undertaking. But yeah, it could 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.559 be kind yeah, to get the whole world to throw 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.040 away all this stuff and just start over on UTC. 0:12:57.320 --> 0:12:59.320 It would be It would take some we can't even 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.200 agree on the metric system for PiZZ says good point, 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.200 But I agree with you. I think it's neat and 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.920 interesting and I think it could probably over time be 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:09.720 very beneficial or or the rest of the world would 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:14.200 do it. In the United States wouldn't, right, right, which 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:15.880 is kind of sort of what's going on. I mean, 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:19.360 Europe's on its twenty four o'clock right, Uh, yeah, I 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:21.880 believe so, and I know the military in the United States, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:23.640 so it is kind of like metric, like we do 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:27.959 kind of secretly do metric on the download here or there. So, um, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.720 you got anything else or got anything else? Okay, Well, 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:33.760 If you want to know more about this, go find 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:39.600 out about it yourself, because your stuff is done. Stuff 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.720 you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:44.560 Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio because 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:47.280 at the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:48.520 listen to your favorite shows.