The Nonsensical and Arbitrary Ways In Which Time Zones Are Applied Around the World

Hank Green shared with his brother John Green his complete amazement at the nonsensical and arbitrary ways that time zones are applied around the world.

He notes the oddities within India, Spain, New Zealand, and Arizona before moving on to the weirdest assignments between the Baker Island atoll and the Phoenix Islands of Micronesia. These islands were once respectively UTC +13 (making it have a 25 hour day) and UTC +14 (26 hour day).

Now we've got these two islands that are in this tiny slice of the Earth that is defined to have a time zone that no one has ....Because if you travel from Baker Island across a time zone border to the Phoenix Islands your clock will move 25 hours. so we have made up not just a UTC +13 time zone but a UTC +14 time zone which was created in 1992 because the island chain of Kirabati spanned the international date line and they were tired of having half their country always be in a different day.

Green Also Noted Time Zone Irregularities in Australia