Time Changes Everything

Sometimes I wonder if life wouldn't be simpler without different time zones all over the world. What if we all just followed GMT, or some other universally fixed time, throughout the earth? How much easier it would be to keep track of days, dates, and important times!

Think about it. We wouldn't have to make confusing calculations. The only possible downside is that almost everyone around the world would be asleep during the same hours, but we know that'll never happen. It doesn't even happen in the same city. People will sleep when they want to. 

Sure, some people might have to sleep with the sun shining and do daytime stuff when it's dark, but there are folks who already live in places with six months of sun and six months of darkness, and I bet they survive just fine. Those unhappy with their schedules can move somewhere else. Maybe if that happened, all call centres could be re-located to one section of the planet. Oh wait, they probably wouldn't work different timings then. See, problem solved! 

Television shows and such things could air at the same time everywhere. Live telecasts of events like World Cup football matches or even the Royal Wedding would be more easily watchable if it wasn't time for about half the world to be sleeping.

No time calculations also means absolutely no miscalculations. So even if you live in a place that is (/was?) a little behind the times, so to speak, you'll no longer, say, wish someone a happy birthday on the following day thinking it's still (the night of) his/her birthday.    

Take a hypothetical situation: let's say you know that the world really is ending on December 21, 2012 at 11:11 GMT. You'd want to do everything you possibly can before that happens, right? Suppose you don't know how far behind GMT you are (and I'm sure a lot of you don't) or, in some extreme cases of ignorance, think GMT is the standard time followed by your country when it's definitely not (I tell you, it's quite possible) you could end up very, very disappointed. Like this:

You make all these plans for the last day of your life...

...but what's that? 

Whoops, Earth exploded before you could do any of those things. Awkward, eh? 

Here's something for the people who came up with those ridiculous high school math problems where one had to find out how long it would take for the two trains to crash into each other, or something like that:

Two spaceships (or whatever you want them to be) weighing two tonnes each are at equal distances (400,000,000 miles) away from the surface of the earth at sea level, on opposite sides of the planet. They both start moving at exactly the same time and travel at a constant speed of 2296.3 kilometres per hour.

1) At what time will they hit the earth's surface? 

(Logically, it would be at the same time, but thanks to different time zones, you'll find them hours apart. So it'll be at the same time, but also at different times.)

2) How long will it take for each to reach the core of the earth (and crash into the other)? 

(You'll find that, naturally, both spaceships get to the core at the same time, except I'm not sure how they keep track of time there)

Note: This is a math problem. Weird things happen in math problems. I mention this so that you understand it's taken for granted that the spaceships can pass through different materials without changing speed and are completely heat resistant, because it's a hypothetical situation.

Well, that's how the world goes round. I mean, look at this - something else related to math (and religion) which I came across on dearblankpleaseblank.com 

Dear math teachers,

If Jesus had two loaves of bread and five fish, how many people could he feed?

Sincerely, good luck with that.

The Bible's answer makes no logical sense, right? But people go with it anyway.

So I guess that in the end, there's no point in me complaining about time zones, except that it makes me feel good to get it out. Also, I have successfully written one more article (if you can call it that) for my blog, with colourful pictures! I may not be ruling the world (yet) but for now, I'd say this is good enough.