Are Local Time And Standard Time Different? Here's The Difference Explained

Timekeeping is an important and basic aspect of everyday life. This aspect is very important for coordinating schedules, activities and understand global communications. Yet, there are several terms in understanding time that can make the process a bit difficult to understand. For instance, the concepts of local time and standard time have always confused many. Both these concepts serve entirely distinct purposes. These concepts can vary according to human conventions and geographical locations.

Today, we aim at clearing the air once and for all and differentiate between local time and standard time. Let's get started with the basics.

Understanding Local Time

First things first, it is important to pick each of the two and understand the concepts separately. Local time is actually the time that is observed in a particular geographic location. This time concept is fundamentally determined through the position of the sun. Local time has historically been based on the solar noon. It is the moment when the sun stands at the highest point in the sky. Therefore, it is safe to say that this implied that every city or town held its very own local time, and thus, the time concept varied of one city varied a bit from the neighboring cities.

Understanding the Standard Time

It was in the 19th century when the concept of standard light came into being. The purpose was to cater to the confusion arising by the multitude of local times.

Now, what does standard time actually do? Well, in order to make time concepts easy and relatively uniform, the concept of standard time divides the whole world into several time zones. Each time zone covers about 15 degrees of longitude. This corresponds to one hour of a time. It was Sir Standford Fleming, a Canadian engineer, who proposed this system. It was later that the International Meridian Conference adopted the system in the year 1884.

Every time zone is defined relative to Coordinated Universal time. the Prime Meridian, which is 0 degrees longitude in Greenwich, England, serve as the reference point. What the standard time zones changed for the good is that they ensured great uniformity in timekeeping across large expanses. The standard time simplified the ways businesses, trains, and global communications were scheduled. 

The Important Differences to Discuss

Let's understand the difference between local time and standard time, one by one.

Difference 1: The Basis of Calculation

Local time is actually based on the sun's position in a particular location. This leads to variations in time calculations from region to region.

Standard time, on the other hand, is based on a fixed system of time zones. Every zone is offset by a specific number of hours from the UTC.

Difference 2: Uniformity

Local time varies incessantly with geographic location. This has caused every town or city to hold its very own unique time.

Standard time, on the other hand, cancels out this problem, and offers great uniformity within a time zone. This ensures that all the locations lying in a zone observe the same time.

Difference: Practicality

Local time had been in practice for a very long time in history. However, it limited long-distance travel and hindered communication.

However, standard time is prevalent in the modern world and is instrumental for synchronized activities across various areas and countries of the world.