Talk:Newfoundland Time Zone/Archive 1

Archive 1

Why does NT differ by 1/2 hour from other time zones?

Does anyone know why NT differs by 1/2 hour from other time zones? This article should include a reference to that, if anyone knows the answer.

-- Well it's sort of described in the article now, but not quite correctly. St. John's, which is at the eastern edge of the province, is at 52 deg 42 mins and so the sun is at its highest there 3 hrs 30 mins and 48 seconds after it is at its highest in Greenwich. Thus in the days before standard time St. John's time was about 3.5 hrs behind London time. The westernmost part of the Newfoundland is at 59 deg, and so is pretty close to the natural middle for the Atlantic time zone (which ought to be called the Maritimes Time Zone). The westernmost part of Labrador is at 67 50' deg west (government of Quebec maps not withstanding), at the natural western edge of Atlantic time. Thus the province actually fits across the natural boundries of the Atlantic zone quite tidily. But, with St. John's being the biggest centre by far, the island (and parts of Labrador) adopted St. John's time. (Of course at the time we weren't a 1/2 hour off the rest of the country, as we were the country.) In fact, my understanding is that the island or maybe the whole dominion was standardized on St. John's time even before the idea of standard time caught on in the rest of the world. 134.153.30.12 18:58, 13 March 2007 (UTC)