The logic of dividing Earth into 24 zones is derived from the fact that the planet is a sphere, and like any sphere it can be divided into 360 equal sections, or 360 degrees. Today, with a number of significant modifications, we still use the 24-time-zone system originally proposed by Fleming. (Image credit: Getty Images/Bloomberg) (opens in new tab) People walking beneath clocks displaying global time zones in the Warsaw Stock Exchange building in Warsaw, Poland. The practicality of his system soon caught on, so that by 1900 most of the industrialized nations of the world had adopted it. Within each time zone, all clocks would be set to an average time that best represented where the sun was located in the sky. Accordingly, he proposed a system of 24 standard time zones that would span the circumference of the Earth. He wanted to make the railroad more efficient and avoid any complications resulting from the different schedules set by the different train stations, which set the time according to their local astronomical conditions, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Fleming was a Scottish engineer who helped design the Canadian railway system. The first system of time zones was proposed by Sir Sandford Fleming in 1876, according to an article in Globe and Mail (opens in new tab), a Canadian news publication. So, to allow people to experience daylight hours in roughly the same amount - that is, to experience a normal day from sunrise to sunset - time zones are in use around the world. But humans don't travel at such speeds (unless you are on the International Space Station), and when not traveling people generally stay in one place.
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