[LEAPSECS] h2g2

[Tony Finch]

On Wed, 1 Sep 2010, Daniel R. Tobias wrote:

>

> If the time zone boundaries were drawn with any sort of logic with

> respect to keeping the times close to the natural solar time in each

> location, then France and Spain would join the UK and Portugal in

> WET, rather than the UK shifting the other way.


Timezone boundaries tend to be further west than mean solar time would
suggest, because people prefer the normal 9-5 working day to fall closer
to sunrise than to sunset. (That is also part of the reason for DST, the
other part being that it is easier to move the clock relative to sunrise
than to move people's habits relative to the clock.) This westering
pattern is quite clear in the US; as Poul-Henning says there are other
considerations in Europe which mean CET extends further East and much
further West than the natural zone boundaries.

Tony.
-- 
f.anthony.n.finch  <dot at dotat.at>  http://dotat.at/
HUMBER THAMES DOVER WIGHT PORTLAND: NORTH BACKING WEST OR NORTHWEST, 5 TO 7,
DECREASING 4 OR 5, OCCASIONALLY 6 LATER IN HUMBER AND THAMES. MODERATE OR
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