What time is it in the North Pole?

[Sophie 378]

You mean the guy who lives in a square house with all the walls facing south?

 

[RoddyVR]

i think it makes perfect sense that the time at the pole should be dependant on where you are facing.
if you face the timezone where it is currently noon (above which the sun is hanging) then it's noon.
if you then turn around, it just became 6 oclock (am or pm depending on which direction you turned)
if you then turn clockwise you'll add an hour for every 30 degrees you turn.
as for the date, well, if you're spinning on the northpole, then it wont realy matter what the date is. you're beyond help anyway.

 

[Perfection]

The whole point of Timezones is convenience, in upper lattitudes you simply measure time another way. It's really simple.

 

[RoddyVR]

i thought the whole point of timezones was confusion. and so that noon is when the sun is above the horizon (was gonna say 90degrees above, but daylightsavings and wide timezones falcifies that).

 

[Aphex_Twin]

If you define the time of day by the movement of the sun then it should be [edit]around 8:30 PM

 

[IglooDame]

i thought the whole point of timezones was confusion. and so that noon is when the sun is above the horizon (was gonna say 90degrees above, but daylightsavings and wide timezones falcifies that).

No, confusion is just a happy side-effect.

I'd have assumed that the poles conform to Greenwich Mean Time, but it does make more sense to use your home country's time instead, since the only timekeeping you really care about up there is what month it is.

 

[happy_Alex]

One could not straddle either the north or south pole, because they dont rotate around the same spot, as the earth wobbles as it rotates

 

[Narz]

Wow, interesting question! I never thought to ask that.

 

[Urederra]

Wow, interesting question! I never thought to ask that.

I was about to start the first post of this thread with a "now, a Narz type question", but then I had second thoughts.

The "it's night time, day time, party time, freexing time" answers are not valid. I was hoping to hear something like, it is Geenwhich (Sp?) time zone, or US Central time, or something like that. Suppose I am a spy and I have to met my USSR counterspy fellow in the North pole at 3:00 p.m. What does it mean translated into Pacific time?

 

[Perfection]

i thought the whole point of timezones was confusion. and so that noon is when the sun is above the horizon (was gonna say 90degrees above, but daylightsavings and wide timezones falcifies that).

No, timezones were established so that train schedules could be standardized. Trying to run trains where every city they go through has a few minutes difference is going to cause a mess.

 

[Sophie 378]

FYI - Greenwich, pronounced Grenn'Itch. Crazy English spelling

 

[Perfection]

One could not straddle either the north or south pole, because they dont rotate around the same spot, as the earth wobbles as it rotates

I don't believe that the wobbling is significant.

 

[Urederra]

FYI - Greenwich, pronounced Grenn'Itch. Crazy English spelling

Thanks, Sophie, I was too lazy to look for the spelling.

You british have a very funny way of pronouncing city names. Gloucester is one of my favourites.

I lived in B'ham for 18 months. Close to Gillot road. at the reservoir. I guess you know the zone.

 

[Sophie 378]

I know exactly where it is on the map, but I've never been there. Gillot Rd is in the wrong place for me; I'm based around the university (Edgbaston & Selly Oak) with trips to the city centre and Solihull.

More silly pronunciations: Salisbury

Spoiler :

sawls-bree

Mousehole

Spoiler :

Mow-zzle

Most Welsh names! (Aberdaugleddau, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Machynlleth <mah-hun-thleth> Hwlffordd, Ystradgynlais etc)


[/threadjack]

 

[ChrTh]

As the song says, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

I nominate the North Pole as somewhere.

 

[WillJ]

It's time for Teletubbies!

 

[happy_Alex]

I don't believe that the wobbling is significant.

What makes you think that?

 

[Perfection]

What makes you think that?

Well I know that those at Amundson Scott have a sign at the South pole. So there probobly isn't that much variation. That and I can't recall ever reading that the variation was significant.

You wouldn't happen to have a source would you?

 

[Aphex_Twin]

What makes you think that?

There's one complete wobble (precession) every ~ 30,000(?) years. On a per-year basis it's pretty insignificant.

 

[happy_Alex]

There's one complete wobble (precession) every ~ 30,000(?) years. On a per-year basis it's pretty insignificant.

so what sort of precision does the earth turn on, is it like the size of a pin, or what?