Trains, telegraphs, and global trade turned local solar time into a worldwide system, yet the story didn't stop at 24 neat slices. In this Flashcards! episode, we explore why there are more than 24 time zones, how half-hour and 45-minute offsets came to be, how the International Date Line adds extra zones, why the North Pole has no official time, and how you'd pick a clock for a polar meeting (with a nod to Nunavut coffee culture near the top of the world).

G.M.T.- Great Mini Takeaways

• Prime Time: Why the "24-zone" model grew to include half-hour and 45-minute offsets.
• Date Line Design: How zigzags in the Pacific create "tomorrow" (and even UTC+14).
• Polar Protocol: No time zone at the North Pole, so teams pick one and sync.

Links & Resources

• What is Greenwich Mean Time? Royal Museums Greenwich. Royal Museums Greenwich
• The International Date Line explained. Timeanddate.com. Time and Date
• Time in Kiribati (GILT/PHOT/LINT; includes UTC+14) Overview. Time and Date
• Samoa's 2011 "skipped day" (time-zone shift) Wired magazine. WIRED
• Alert, Nunavut (northernmost continuously inhabited place) Background. Wikipedia
• Tim Hortons locations in Nunavut (Iqaluit listings) Official directory. locations.timhortons.ca

(Note: You'll hear a shout-out to coffee "near the top of the world" in Nunavut; official Tim Hortons locations are listed for Iqaluit. Alert is the northernmost inhabited place, but it's a military station without a public Tim's listing.)

🔗 Explore more on our website: mathsciencehistory.com 📚 To buy my book Hypatia: The Sum of Her Life on Amazon, visit https://a.co/d/g3OuP9h

🌍 Let's Connect! Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mathsciencehistory.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/math.science.history Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathsciencehistory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/math-science-history/ Threads: https://www.threads.com/@math.science.history YouTube: Math! Science! History! - YouTube Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mathsciencehistory 🎧 Enjoying the Podcast?

If you love Math, Science, History, here's how you can help:🌟 Leave a review! It helps more people discover the show!📢 Share this episode with friends & fellow history buffs!🔔 Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform

☕ Support the Show: Coffee!! PayPal

🛍 Check out our merch: https://www.mathsciencehistory.com/the-store

🎵 Music: All music is public domain and has no Copyright and no rights reserved. Selections from The Little Prince by Lloyd Rodgers Until next time, carpe diem!