why is there three different time zones instead of one?

Answer 1

Try there are 4 main ones in the US...Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. Maybe you should have paid attention in school.

Answer 2

The reason why there are a lot of different time zones is because the sun will rise and set at different times in different places in the world. That is because the earth orbits the sun and that causes the sun to appear as if it were rising and setting. So, before electricity was used for indoor light, people had to wake up as soon as the sun rised and go to sleep as soon as it set in order to have a full day and be able to get things done with light. And that caused them to have different time zones so when it is 3:00 pm, it is light out, no matter if your in China or America, even if it is not at the same non-clock time.

Answer 3

There are more than just three time zones all over the world. We have them because the earth travels around the sun...we all get sun at different times. If we all had the same time zone, then some people would be completely in the dark when it's 9AM....

Answer 4

It's a compromise between legislation and reality. Before time zones were invented, people all across the country had their clocks set on the same hour, but, scientifically, and also as a practical matter, the only way to determine the true astonomical time in any given location was by setting "noon" as whenever the sun was at is zenith. Well, the sun rises and sets later on the West Coast than on the East coast, hence is it's zenith at different times. But, if every town set its clocks by true astronomical time, that would mean that even towns in the same state would have their clocks set a few minutes differently. To create agreement over a wide area, but to keep breakfast time in California from being too early and supper time in New York from being too late, and to make meal times "just right" in between, they gave us different time zones. See?

Answer 5

There are about 24 time zones and without them the sun would have to rise all around the World at the same time(impossible) so that is why we have different time zones when it is light where you are someone else is in the dark

Answer 6

Actually, there are more than 24 time zones because some countries keep time differing by some number of hours from GMT plus half an hour. This makes sense if most of the country lies between two prime longitudes (that is, longitudes of n x 15 degrees, for some n).

Answer 7

Simply because of how the earth rotates around the sun. People are prone to sleep when it's dark, so because the earth is dark in different areas at different times, people aren't always awake at the same time.

Let's say you want to call someone who lives in England at 7:30 pm EST. For them, it would be in the early morning hours, around one or two o'clock am. If you know how time zones work, then you can avoid waking them up in the middle of that dream they never get to finish.

Answer 8

There are 4 time zones, in the US. They base it on the time the sun sets. in NY it sets at 9pm, thats Eastern, and then in WI it sets at 9pm central time, (the sun has actually been down for an hour in NY). Wanna see.. check this site a hour after sunset. http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/goeseastconus.html
There will be a box with the number 6 in it, click the arrow next to it, and select 12 for dial up, or 30 for a faster connection, (Just number of images it will load). then click the animate button above the picture. Its cool...

Answer 9

Am assuming you mean 3 time zones in the USA? There are a total of 24 time zones worldwide and they conincide with the position of the Earth.

Google is your friend...

Answer 10

Perhaps you're thinking of the TV Pacific/Central/Eastern times. There's also Mountain time in the US, so we have four time zones. There's 24 around the world.

Answer 11

Well, imagine going to Japan one day, waking up at 1:00a.m. and the sun is shining. How freaking creapy would that be? Instead, it rises at about the same time as it does at your place, just in another time zone.