Canada’s Time Zones

How would you rate your knowledge about timezones?

What are time zones?
 Why do we use
time zones?

Write your answers here:

Standard time zones

How it Started
 Time Zones of Canada
● Early 19th century railroads across the US, had up to
20 time changes because of changes in daylight.
● This led to many logistical issues and failures to get
shipments arriving on time.
Many towns had their own local time based on solar noon. This
might have seemed logical, but if it was noon in Montreal then it
was 11:48 a.m. in Kingston and 11:35 a.m. in Toronto. These
discrepancies added up to trains that were impossible to
schedule.
How did it start?

● Sir Sanford Fleming

came up with the
proposal for the world
to be divided into
regional time zones.
● Fleming was director
of CPR and was
struggling to manage
railway schedules.
● Fleming’s solution was
brilliantly simple —
divide the world into
24 time zones, one for
every hour of the day.

● Fleming convinced the

International Meridian
Congress in October
1884, and Universal
Standard Time went
into effect on Jan. 1,
1885.
What area would be designated as the central point from which all world time zones aligned to?
The Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England.
would be the the “UTC” (Coordinated Universal Time)
The reference point for all other time zones

In Greenwich, England, of course (East London)

Greenwich Mean Time – The Reference Point for all Time
Zones
● Canada has 6 time zones
● Many of Canada’s time zones are drawn
along provincial or territorial boundaries,
but there are some exceptions.

● Question: If the world is 360 degrees, and

we have one time zone for each hour of
the day. Approximately how far apart in
degrees would each time zone be?
Answer: 360º÷24 = 15º
● Generally speaking, a time zone is
approximately 15º of longitude from its
easternmost to its westernmost
boundary.

● A difference of 15º longitude

corresponds to a one hour difference in
local time.
What are other ways people would struggle if
each community had their own time zone?
 Canada’s Time Zones Continued!
● Since1985 GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) has
been called UTC (Universal Time) or Z time.
● Every15 degrees of longitude would be one
hour different- moving eastward...e.g. London
12 noon, Paris 1pm etc...
Canada
● The Earth does one full rotatation every 24 hrs.
● There are 24 time zones (15º x 24) = 360
● Time zones often follow physical features such as
mountains etc..
● Canada has SIX time zones
If it is 2pm in Vancouver (BC) what time would it be Edmonton?
All area within a time zone
is the same from the north
pole to the south pole.
THE TIMEZONE RULE
● Going East : ADD Time!
● Going West: SUBTRACT Time!

● Generally 1 hour per time zone.

(Newfoundland Time is an exception)
● Canada’s 6 time zones are as follows:

Pacific Time (3 hours behind us)

Mountain Time (2 hours behind us)
Central Time (1 hour behind us)
Eastern Time (Where we live)
Atlantic Time (1 hour ahead of us)
Newfoundland Time (1.5 hours ahead of us)
THE EXCEPTION!

● Every time zone in

Canada is separated by
one hour, EXCEPT for
Newfoundland.

● They are separated by

half an hour, or 30
minutes.
If it is 9:00AM in Brampton, what time is it in
Vancouver, B.C.?
6:00 AM in Vancouver
Time zones of the world:
Interesting Facts
● Russiahas 11 time zones, yet China has
only 1 based on Beijing time
● Francewould not accept International
time until 1911 due to “anglo-phobia”
● Atthe poles all the world’s time zones
converge together!