2007-04-14 20:08:51 · 5 answers · asked by rs1098924 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Geography
Well, don't use this to answer a test question without checking it, but I think it's because the prime meridian is located there, and that's where longitude is measured from.
It's either that, or it's the basis for the time zones.
Or maybe both.
2007-04-14 20:13:35 · answer #1 · answered by lawmom 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok in times gone by, sailors travelling the world knew latitude, but not longitude, this meant ships could easily get lost when sailing around the world. (they even set up a competition to try and get someone to solve the problem of longitude...there is a book called"longitude" which tells this story and I know it was made into a miniseries)
Anyway the result was an accurate clock (as ships used solar time back then), but it needed to be very accurate and where all ships could make sure it was, they set up a ball drop, literally a large ball on a pole that would drop at midday at Greenwich. (England was of course the superpower of the day and the guy who invented it was also English..and why its in England). This was called the Greenwich mean time (ie the time at Greenwich in the middle of the day). This meant that captains could accurately determine where they were (these clocks were kept under lock and key as to stop them being tampered with) and save lives.
This of course then lead to the international time.....so 12 hours in front of this time is now the international date line (I live in New Zealand and get to see the "new day" first because of GMT!) and why times and days are where they are today.
2007-04-15 04:59:10 · answer #2 · answered by mareeclara 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because the first time a meridian was created, it was supposed to divide in half the village of Greenwich in East London, where the fiirst Astronomic Observatory of England was placed, and because the first ones to use it, as a reference of time, were the English sailors (remember in that time, the Queen of the seas" was England,)
Nowadays is still used as a reference for international time (compared time, abbreviated GMT (Greenwich Meridian Time) for international comparison of the time, of a given
event elsewhere on earth.
2007-04-15 03:15:12 · answer #3 · answered by Sehr_Klug 50 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because Greenwich is located at Zero degrees Longitude.
2007-04-16 17:30:55 · answer #4 · answered by 3lixir 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It has something to do with time. The Greenwich Mean Time.
2007-04-15 03:20:12 · answer #5 · answered by Jeniv the Brit 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋