Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: neilep on 20/10/2011 12:29:18

Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: neilep on 20/10/2011 12:29:18
Dearest Poloeologists,

Lets face it....the North Pole is like well North and quite simply the best place on the planet !  All day...we all just think about going there don't we ?...and what will we do when we arrive !....Have a Fondue of course !!...lol...as if ewe did not know this already   [::)]...C'mon !...when ewe woke up this morning...all ewe could think about was having a fondue at the North Pole !...and then playing hide the stick of white chalk within a square mile !..such fun !..........it's glorious yes ?


Look ..here I am climbing a snowy/icy thing at the North Pole.



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A Snowy/Icy Thing At The North Pole.


I am puzzled though !...what time shall we arrange to meet for the Fondue ?...ewe see...all the timey places on the planet converge here don't they ?...and at the South Pole too !...This creates a problem when arranging appointments  !!

So...what time is it at the North and South Pole ?



If ewe can let me know soon please as I need to let Vistaprint* (cos they email me about a zillion times a day) know so they can print my invites !


Hugs and shmishes


mwah mwah mwah



Neil
"I Claim This Snowy/Icey Thing...arrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhh !!.."......... Splash !!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx




* Other online printing services are available but Vistaprint are the only ones who tell me how lucky I am every single day !


Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: CZARCAR on 20/10/2011 18:27:09
6:00 APM or PAM?= if u were on the equator,the 1/2 day spent spinning in the same direction as the earth was rotating around the sun, ur speed would be faster & the time would slow down. The other 1/2 day ur speed would be slower as the earthspin is  going opposite & time would speed up. At 6am & 6pm , the time/speed factor would be 0 as deccelaration changes to acceleration of the earth's rotation.
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: Geezer on 20/10/2011 18:45:39
If the Sun is up, it's day time. If it's pitch black, it's night time.
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: CliffordK on 20/10/2011 19:50:36
Good Question.

In the summer at the poles, you could make a perfect sundial.  You would just have to know how to orient it.  In the winter, of course, your sundial would be pretty much useless.

The time zone, however, would be arbitrary as you would have 24 hour sunlight in the summer, and 24 hour darkness at night, so since there are many British on the board, one might as well arbitrarily choose Greenwich Time.

The North Pole is over water, and the ice tends to drift, so one could not make a permanent North Pole facility as it would eventually drift away from the pole.

The South Pole, however, is in a fixed location.  The Amundsen Scott South Pole Station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scott_South_Pole_Station) is an American research facility located at the South Pole.  With that in mind, one might be tempted to choose one of the several time zones in the USA, for example Eastern Standard Time, or Alaska Standard Time.  Oddly, I wouldn't have guessed it, but they actually use New Zealand time at Amundsen Scott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scott_South_Pole_Station#Time_zone).

A unique way of defining the clock might be to define noon as being the summer solstice, and midnight as the winter solstice, and divide the hours and minutes of a day as the portions of a year that the rest of the world experiences.
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: neilep on 22/10/2011 05:28:26
6:00 APM or PAM?= if u were on the equator,the 1/2 day spent spinning in the same direction as the earth was rotating around the sun, ur speed would be faster & the time would slow down. The other 1/2 day ur speed would be slower as the earthspin is  going opposite & time would speed up. At 6am & 6pm , the time/speed factor would be 0 as deccelaration changes to acceleration of the earth's rotation.

Thanks for this CZARCAR.....gosh !!..one can get dizzy the equator !...but the equator does have time zones doesn't it ?..unlike northy pole and southy pole ?
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: neilep on 22/10/2011 05:29:36
If the Sun is up, it's day time. If it's pitch black, it's night time.

Well...I'm convinced !..Thanks for shedding some day time light on this Geezer....I'm still in the dark though *le sigh*   [:)]
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: neilep on 22/10/2011 05:35:51
Good Question.

In the summer at the poles, you could make a perfect sundial.  You would just have to know how to orient it.  In the winter, of course, your sundial would be pretty much useless.

The time zone, however, would be arbitrary as you would have 24 hour sunlight in the summer, and 24 hour darkness at night, so since there are many British on the board, one might as well arbitrarily choose Greenwich Time.

The North Pole is over water, and the ice tends to drift, so one could not make a permanent North Pole facility as it would eventually drift away from the pole.

The South Pole, however, is in a fixed location.  The Amundsen Scott South Pole Station (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scott_South_Pole_Station) is an American research facility located at the South Pole.  With that in mind, one might be tempted to choose one of the several time zones in the USA, for example Eastern Standard Time, or Alaska Standard Time.  Oddly, I wouldn't have guessed it, but they actually use New Zealand time at Amundsen Scott (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scott_South_Pole_Station#Time_zone).

A unique way of defining the clock might be to define noon as being the summer solstice, and midnight as the winter solstice, and divide the hours and minutes of a day as the portions of a year that the rest of the world experiences.

Thank ewe CliffodK. Daylight or night...surely time does not become affected by whether it is light or dark and I guess the same must apply to the geography of the place whether it is iced up or not...Surely the North pole is still the North Pole locale remains the same  should the ice drifts or not ?..........Thank for your very interesting explanations .
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: Geezer on 22/10/2011 06:19:36
If the Sun is up, it's day time. If it's pitch black, it's night time.

Well...I'm convinced !..Thanks for shedding some day time light on this Geezer....I'm still in the dark though *le sigh*   [:)]

No, see, I was, as usual, being completely serious.

Your H.Samuel "Everite" tells you that the sun will be at its highest point in the sky at Noon (can't say whether that's am or pm cos I've never been able to figure it out) and the time between that event and the next event is what we call a day. Your watch chops that into 2 chunks of 12 bits.

Obviously, that's about as much use as a chocolate teapot in places like The North Pole and London where it's impossible to even see the Sun for months on end. 

Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: CZARCAR on 22/10/2011 13:06:14
earth rotates around sun @ R speed, earth spins on its axis @ S speed. Both R & S are counterclockwise. On the equator @ noon my speed is R-S whereas at midnite its R+S. Q= does this affect the time speed thing?
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: CliffordK on 22/10/2011 17:19:13
Thanks for this CZARCAR.....gosh !!..one can get dizzy the equator !...but the equator does have time zones doesn't it ?..unlike northy pole and southy pole ?
The equator has time zones.
However, they also have 12 hr day / 12 hr nights all year long.

So, the daylight savings times that those of us away from the equator have would be pretty much meaningless.
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: damocles on 24/10/2011 00:35:17
Why would they use kiwi time at Amundsen Scott?

(1) Their main source of supply and first port of call in dealings with the outside world is at Christchurch NZ (or was before the earthquake).

(2) NZ time is (except for daylight saving) conveniently just 12 hours out-of-phase with GMT -- very convenient indeed for those culturally conditioned to using a 12-hour time system.

(3) It allows US South Polers to join the kiwis in being the first to greet a new day.
Title: What Time Is It At The Poles ?
Post by: Don_1 on 24/10/2011 17:20:11
In an effort to solve your problem, I considered the best course of action to be to ask a Pole. Unfortunately, he did not speak English & I do not speak Polish, so I whacked him around the head a few times and took him home to clean our oak furniture. 'Er indoors said she wanted some whacks Polish.

If you're somewhat bemused by this, spare a thought for me, this sort of crap is going around in my head all the time!