Time Zones

MathsIsFun · 2006-02-09 20:16:08

I have two time-zone related pages I have been working on recently.

I decided to just put them on the website so you guys can tell me what is wrong or right about them, and in the meantime I can get on with spam-protecting the forum. These are the pages:

World Time Zones
Earth's Orbit and Daylight

Did I get anything wrong (like the earth orbiting the wrong direction ... you know), or is it not explained well.

And any suggestions about how I could include Daylight Savings without making it all just too complicated.

justlookingforthemoment · 2006-02-09 21:01:45

It's cool. I've just had a quick skim... on the Earth Orbit page am I meant to be able to move the big Earth? I can fully move it up and down on its axis, like behind the the text and everything. Just seemed a bit weird.

I love the World Clock! I'm not sure, but is daylight savings in use? It doesn't seem to be for my time zone, as the band which Victoria is in shows an hour earlier than the actual time.

Will the World Clock replace the Sun clock?

Some ideas for Daylight Saving:
Daylight Saving doesnt actually 'save' anything. All it really does is take one hour from the morning when we might be sleeping and moves it to the evening so we can enjoy the light outside. In the summer and spring months, we move our clocks one hour forward to enjoy the warm, light evenings. When it starts getting colder, we change our clocks back. Although this means it will quickly get dark very early in the evenings, we do this so we can wake up in the morning with the sun up. Most people don't like getting out of bed when it is dark, and especially not while it is cold.

mathsyperson · 2006-02-10 04:38:40

Superlative work as always.
I can't see any mistakes in it so far.

Would it be possible to make buttons so that you could shift it forward an hour, a day, a month, etc.?

Tigeree · 2006-02-10 14:29:53

cool, just had a look

Last edited by Tigeree (2006-02-10 14:30:09)

John E. Franklin · 2006-02-20 14:52:44

Daylight savings is in the summer, I agree I just heard that, and so in the winter the the sun probably is most direct at noon, while in the summer the noon time comes before the sun is overhead. I wonder if that statement is true. Also there are at least one place on Earth that has their time zone off by 1/2 an hour! Maybe NewFoundland? But that would be tough to show.
Finally due to the size of the bitmap viewing area, the +12, which is the -12 hour time zone doesn't fully print the time, you can
go from one end to the other to see each half of its display.

And I have been watching the sun clock for weeks now and keep it as an open window in my browser.
This new one is spectacular!!!!!!! I don't know how you do it. And on the solar system one, it is very nice, but to
be more accurate, you would sacrifice movement of the earth around the sun, or would have to spin the earth
faster because it only spins maybe thirty times around in one year instead of 365.25
Did you try it at 365 spins, and not like how slowly it went around the sun??
But I must stress that the work is totally incredible!!!!!!!!

MathsIsFun · 2006-02-20 19:33:20

Thank you so much! That is pretty much why I make these things.

For daylight saving there will be two types of zones and it would be very confusing I think. For example the "-5" zone goes through parts of South and North America, and I want to show that - but then I will also want to show that the US is in Daylight Savings come summer.

And yes, the world spins too slowly in the animation. Maybe I should have a button that can select the ratio of days? Certainly at 365 spins/year you need a lot of patience to see the seasonal variation.

John E. Franklin · 2006-02-21 03:53:44

I can't think of a solution to the 365.25 turns and needing a lot of patience to watch it.

John E. Franklin · 2006-03-02 16:05:31

I just discovered the slider control for the speed of orbit and # of rotations in Earth's orbit.
Again, nice work. You're very handy with Java, is that what you use mostly?

John E. Franklin · 2006-03-02 16:25:47

Also I did some counting at various speeds of orbit, and the number of rotations is too high by the √ 2 sorry to say.
Am I being too picky? Par example, I counted a quarter of a year at 365 days per year to practice counting en français, and I got mixed up between 79 and 80 where the numbers are funny in French, but I also counted out some shorter years and got more turns than expected.

Last edited by John E. Franklin (2006-03-02 16:31:58)

MathsIsFun · 2006-03-02 16:51:32

A quarter of a year is about 80? That makes only 320 I shall look

John E. Franklin · 2006-03-03 04:07:49

No, the number wasn't eighty, that's where I got mixed up counting in French. The number was possibly over a hundred.
It is usually 1.4 times too many rotations, not the other way around.

Math Is Fun Forum

#1 2006-02-09 20:16:08

Time Zones

#2 2006-02-09 21:01:45

Re: Time Zones

#3 2006-02-10 04:38:40

Re: Time Zones

#4 2006-02-10 14:29:53

Re: Time Zones

#5 2006-02-20 14:52:44

Re: Time Zones

#6 2006-02-20 19:33:20

Re: Time Zones

#7 2006-02-21 03:53:44

Re: Time Zones

#8 2006-03-02 16:05:31

Re: Time Zones

#9 2006-03-02 16:25:47

Re: Time Zones

#10 2006-03-02 16:51:32

Re: Time Zones

#11 2006-03-03 04:07:49

Re: Time Zones

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