I don't understand the world time zone...?

Question

For example, I live in California, so I am in the Pacific Time Zone, which is -8.

Okay, so the difference between New York City and L.A is 3 hours. I just don't believe that it is EXACTLY 3 hours different. Then, from L.A to Miami is also EXACTLY 3 hours. It just doesn't make sense. It must be some minutes off, it can't be exactly 3 hours.

So when we watch a "Live" event on the television that is international/nation wide (e.g Fifa), is it going to be 100% live?

Answer 1

No, it's going to be taped and delayed. You  might want to drop this link into your favorites:

http://www.worldtimezone.com/

Answer 2

time zones were created for the trains in the 1800s.  people were never sure of a train schedule, because they told their time based on the sun.  hours were correct, but it could be 12:36 in one place, and 2:24 in another.  the zones were created based on the movement of the sun, so that the minutes would match up if you were in california, or in massachusetts.  

NYC and LA are 3 hours apart in time zones.  minutes have nothing to do with it.  LA and Miami have the same deal.

watching a "live" event is live.  i mean, most stations have delay because of cenorship, but it is usually less than a minute, so you are seeing the event as it happens.

Answer 3

The world is 24875 miles around at the equator.  Since the day is 24 hours, the sun travels at1036 miles per hour around the earth.  Pretty fast, eh.  We could have chosen to have every time zone be 1 minute wide and have 360 time zones or the time it takes the sun to go 69.1 miles but that would not have been practical.  We chose instead to have each time zone be 1 hour wide.  Now if we divide the world into 24 time zones each one hour wide each time zone would be 360/24 = 15 degrees wide, or +/- 7.5 degrees.  The "0" time zone  was chosen to be Geenwich, England.  The "0" time zone ends and the next time zone in our direction begins at 7.5 degrees west of Greenwich and is centered at 15 degrees west.  The next time zone is at 30 degrees west, etc.  The estern time zone of the US is centered at 75 degrees west, central at 90 west, mountain at 105 west and Pacific at 120 degrees west.  

When the sun rises at the eastern edge of a time zone it still dark at the western edge of that time zone and the sun will not rise there for an hour, but it is still the same time.  Just the opposite occurs at sunset on the eastern edge and it is still daylight on the western edge and the sun won't set for an hour more but it is the same time.  Interesting!  

So you are right, we have artificially established it to be the same time everywhere in a time zone for our convenience. The sun doesn't care.  It is still ripping along at 69.1 miles per minute as the world turns.  And yes, it will be a live event.

Answer 4

You're making this too difficult.  Until the advent of mechanized travel, time wasn't much of a problem.  In the US, the advent of train travel caused huge amounts of confusion.  Noon was a local event based on the sun's location, local apparent noon.  Just like aircraft today,  a train could arrive at a western destination before it left or arrive at an eastern destination long after it was suppose to arrive.  Very confusing and made train schedules difficult at best.  To correct the "problem" the US was divided into time zones - much in the same way that ships have time zones too.

So, LA to NYC isn't exactly 3 hours but by agreement about the location of the time zones,  eastern - central - mountain & western,  the time between NYC and LA is 3 hours.