Edt what is the time now

It may sound confusing at first, but understanding how time zones work and when do countries switch to Daylight Saving Time makes it easier to figure out. First things first: you are probably wondering what a time zone really is. You are probably aware that not all countries on Earth observe noon at the same time. It would be impossible because the Earth is a rotating sphere, and only half of it faces the Sun during the day.

Because the Earth rotates, various countries observe noon at different hours throughout the day. To coordinate a time and to help people, industries, governments, and businesses, the Earth was split into 24 time zones. The ideal situation is to have the sun at its highest point in the sky when it is noon, that is when crossing the meridian.

If we have just one time zone, it would not be possible because the Earth rotates 15 degrees every hour. It was then agreed that a system of multiple time zones be adopted. In this system, the world is divided into 24 degree sections and clocks are set according to each time zone, with each time zone having a difference of one hour to the next zone. This will make all the people within a particular time zone set their clock the same way.

For instance, in the United States, there are four time zones. They include the Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. To have an idea of how they are related: when it is noon in the Eastern time zone, it is 11 a.

This point is known as the Greenwich Meridian or Prime Meridian. This means that when it is noon in the Eastern time zone, then the time is 5 p. All countries and cities in a time zone observe the same time. There is no difference in time, even if the countries are thousands of miles apart.

Different parts of the world enter and exit daylight at different times, so splitting the world into 24 time zones makes a lot of sense. Although the GMT is not considered a standard anymore, it still belongs to one of the 24 time zones of the world. The Coordinated Universal Time UTC is so-called since it has become the standard by which all the time zones are based. And contrary to what is generally believed, UTC is not a time zone. It is the standard by which all the world timing systems have adopted, synchronizing their local clocks with it.

The various time zones are simply designated by the hourly difference between UTC. TAI is a scale that helps determine the speed at which clocks should tick. It is found by combining the time of more than atomic clocks located worldwide. It is very accurate. This is why it is sometimes called astronomical or solar time. Often, timekeepers use to measure the length of a single day on the planet using the UTI. Observing EST goes back to the 19th century and is connected with the need for the trains to have standardized time.

The country started using EST on December 1, , in the railway system. However, the majority of British public clocks observed GMT until Both variations are used by the island of Bermuda. In the Caribbean, over 20 countries use AST all year.

This time zone is exclusive to the country of Bolivia and observed throughout the year without any changes. It is always at UTC This time is observed exclusively on the Falkland Islands in South America. This is the time zone throughout the year; there is no observance of DST. This is a military time zone that is observed by aviation. The letter Q is used to designate this time zone.

It is used over the sea between the longitudes of There are other time zones that make the change between their standard times and summer times, but this practice has been under scrutiny since it began. This practice was first casually suggested by Benjamin Franklin in , and it was first used by the Germans in WWI to save coal, and it was here that the concept took hold. The proponents of this practice claim that it saves energy, promotes a healthy lifestyle, and reduces traffic accidents.

Are these claims true? The idea of saving energy was first put forth by the Germans. They believed that by changing the clocks, people would use less artificial light in the evening hours and therefore would need less coal.

This argument claims that DST lowers the amount of traffic accidents, but studies have shown extremely small or completely negligible amount of reduction. With such a small influence, the question begins to rise on whether we need this practice anymore. While the hour change does allow for more sunlight and therefore more opportunity to be physically active, the sudden change in our routine can also be extremely detrimental to our health.

Our circadian rhythms are dependant on our routines and sudden changes can drastically alter these all important rhythms in our body.

Every spring when the clocks change, there is a massive spike in suicide rate and in recorded heart attacks. The country of Kazakhstan abolished DST in , citing health reasons behind their motivation. This practice costs the United States billions of dollars each year as it damages business hours, agriculture, and the stock market in major ways. There are plenty of people who still support the practice, but there are also plenty of reasons to do away with it altogether.

This variation of the Eastern Standard Time zone is, for some, an outdated practice, and for others a necessity to enjoy more of the daylight during the summer.

Now that you know where and how this time zone is observed, you can make better decisions about where you want to live. You can also convert your time to other zones from or to this one in the future to help with your scheduling and planning. Thanks as always for reading and be sure to visit our blog for more in-depth articles and posts! Compare Time Difference Between 2 Cities. Use the search bar above to look up by city and not by time zone.

New York, NY.