In the past two activities, you looked at how to convert both Canadian and world time zones. In this activity, you will look at how time zones are used in everyday life.          

Businesses around the world have the largest interest in time zones. As business continues to become more internationally focused instead of concentrating on a national focus, time zones become even more important.

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Many large companies with offices all around the world have to work daily within the constraints of time zones. An employee in Cairo, Egypt, that needs to have a video conference meeting with another employee in Calgary, Alberta, had better know the time difference when setting it up. Without knowledge of time zones, this meeting will likely occur with a lot of difficulty, if it occurs at all.

The same goes for wanting to actually talk to someone in a foreign country when ordering a product. You can go on the Internet and possibly find out that XYZ company has work hours of 8 a .m. to 5 p.m., but those work hours are in India! Calling from Red Deer at 2 p.m. to talk to someone at the company won't do you any good because it is 1:30 a.m. in India and that store is definitely closed!

As well as using the 24-hour clock, the military is a user of world time zones. They use it for many reasons but the most important is knowing exactly what time it is in any part of the world at a given time. This allows the commanders to make proper plans. Can you imagine if you wanted to send a patrol out just before daybreak but didn't know when that was in another part of the world? A mistake of one hour could mean that the patrol goes out in the daylight, and because the cover of darkness is gone, someone may be injured or worse!    

  Self-check!