As you learned in Activity 1, Sandford Fleming came up with time zones for the entire world. They work in exactly the same way as the time zones for Canada, except there are a lot more of them.

For every time zone you move to the east, you add one hour, and for every time zone you move to the west, you subtract one hour. You will practise converting world time zones in this activity.  

Courtesy of Getty

Look at this map of world time zones.

Courtesy of Public Domain

Notice that on this map there are no times. Each time zone is represented by a number.  We have one point on Earth that all time is set by. This happens to pass through Greenwich, England, and is represented on the map by the number "0." 

In small text at the bottom, it shows what time it is in that time zone if it is 12:00 in Greenwich.

All other times are calculated from this spot. Notice that - numbers are to the right of 0 and + numbers are to the right of 0. Also notice that the numbers are in coloured stripes and the countries are coloured to match the number to represent what time they go by. For example, China spans five time zones but only uses one time zone, "+8."

Using the legend at the bottom of the chart, you can figure out what time it is anywhere in the world if you know what time it is in Greenwich.

You can also use this map to figure out any time difference in the world.

Courtesy of Getty

For example, Mr. B. is going to travel from Alberta to teach in time zone "D." Alberta is in time zone "T." Right now it is 3:10 p.m. in Alberta. How can we figure out what time it is in time zone "D"? We can do it two different ways:

   

1. We can count the number of time zones, changing the time as we go. Time zone "S" is 4:10 p.m.; time zone "R" is 5:10 p.m.; etc. until we get to time zone "D," which would be 2:10 a.m.

   

2. Or we can use the map to do this quickly. Time zone "T" is –7 and time zone "D" is +4. We can calculate the difference between the two numbers to find out how many hours there are between the two time zones. 4 – (–7) = 11. This means that there is an 11-hour difference between time zone "R" and time zone "D." Adding 11 hours to 3:10 p.m. makes it 2:10 a.m. the next day in time zone "D."

You can use whichever method you wish to find out the different times, but it is important to know both methods.

Spend some time looking over the map. It is very detailed. If you have questions about it, ask your teacher. You will practise using the map in the self-check.

  Self-check!