On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 13:32:57 -0500, Peter H. Granzeau <pgranzeau at cox.net> wrote: > Then The Empire is about the size of Europe, or roughly 4 million square > miles. China is about 3.7 million square miles and is in one time zone. > China is in one time zone because the Chinese have ignored geography. > Solar noon occurs over a range of about 4 hours at various places in > China. The United States could be put into one time zone with exactly > the same logic (governmental fiat). We do have governmental fiats to set up our current time zones. There are places in the world that are 1/2 and even 1/4 hours from their neighbors. Why not have time zones every 1/2 hour apart? That would allow noon to be closer to reality. But in a country that has daylight savings time, the relationship between our clocks and reality apparently isn't much of a concern. There's nothing special about 1 hour, except that it makes adjusting clocks easier. -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/