Time Zones

I just spent about 8.5 hours flying from Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Anchorage, Alaska a span of four times zones.  It is exhausting because of having left so early in the morning and arriving at my destination mid afternoon. 

Its interesting that the world is divided into a minimum of 24 time zones based on the idea that each time zone is 15 degrees from the next time zone or about an hour apart but in reality it does not quite work that way. There is the GMT line or Greenwich Mean Time, the International Date Line which have added a couple of extra time zones to everything.  Then there are a some places such Singapore or  North Korea as which only have 30 or 45 minutes in the time zone. 

One large country, China, only has one time zone. China has operated on Beijing Time or Chinese Standard Time since 1949 when the communists took over.  A question asking about travel time in China would require no additional time zone calculations but if you flew to Singapore, you'd have to keep in mind the 30 minute time zone.

There are several sites which provide some very good time change problems complete with explanations and very real problems.  For instance, Space Math by NASA takes time to explain the time zones in the United States but its problems deal with what time astronomers need to be ready to watch a solar flare.  I've actually done some calculations like that to determine if I could watch a solar event.

Berkley has a nice set of problems which take this a step further by involving more countries after having students practice finding times when going from one time zone to another.  The questions require students to calculate differences between Central Australia and Alaska or Universal Time and California.

I was unable to find problems in which the traveler began in Germany and ended in one of the countries with a 30 or 45 minute time zone.  I think it would be cool to have students create a a trip through certain countries with information on time zones, take off and landing times for a realistic activity.

Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear from you.