WHAT IS THE PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF STANDARD TIME?

The alignment of time devices inside a geographic location to a unified standard time, instead of a “local mean time standard” is referred to as Standard Time (ST). To put it simply, Standard time is defined as the time of an area or territory that is determined by law or common use. Standard time usually correlates with the local mean time standard at a meridian running across the area, which is usually near the centre of the area. 

Standard time was introduced in the nineteenth century to help with weather predictions and travelling via trains. Geographical locations turned to time zones when the standard time was adopted worldwide in the twentieth century. Each time zone’s standard time is now expressed as an offset of Universal Time.

As time and longitude are inextricably interconnected, the introduction of standard time strengthened the notion of dividing the globe into 2 parts, a western and an eastern hemisphere, along with a prime meridian substituting the multiple prime meridians concept formerly applied.

SIGNIFICANCE OF HAVING A STANDARD TIME

In the late 1800s, the approach to standard time was presented in an effort to avoid the misunderstanding produced by each region using its own solar time. With the growth of quick railway service and the resulting chaos of timetables that had to use tens of various local points of time maintained in various areas, a sort of standard time zone grew very much necessary.

In Canada and the United States, wherein lengthy railway courses travelled across regions where local time fluctuated by many hours, the necessity for a standard time was seen quite acutely. In the late 1870s, Sir Sandford Fleming, a Canadian railway designer and engineer, developed a scheme for global standard time. After this move, officials of 27 countries gathered in Washington, D.C. in 1884 to settle on a structure that is essentially equal to the one in use today.

THE PURPOSE OF HAVING A STANDARD TIME

Having started with the prime meridian via Greenwich, England, the current structure uses twenty four standard meridians of longitude, that are 15° apart, spanning through the North Pole to the South Pole at right angles to the Equator. The 24 Standard Time zones have the meridians as their conceptual centres, though the zones are frequently partitioned or reconfigured for the benefit of residents. As longitude changes, the local time changes as well.

The time throughout a zone is constant and does not change but only differs by an inherent number of hours; minutes and seconds are about the same, from the global regulatory and scientific time standard, Coordinated Universal Time.

But, since half an hour or quarter of an hour variations are in existence in a few locations, the official time is not the same as of the 24 Standard Time zones. Furthermore, Daylight Saving Time is a widely used system in which time is forwarded by an hour from Standard Time, primarily to lengthen the hours of daylight during traditional waking times and, in many circumstances, for a portion of the year.

WHAT IS THE EST TIME ZONE?

The full form of the EST time zone is Eastern Standard Time (EST). The second easternmost time zone in Canada and the easternmost in the United States is called Eastern Standard Time (EST). It includes all or portions of the 23 states of the United States and three Canadian regions or provinces.

EST is also known as the Eastern Time Zone or the Eastern Time (ET) in common usage. This can cause some confusion because the title Eastern Time does not distinguish among the standard time and Daylight Saving Time, therefore in locations using DST for a portion of the year, ET shifts between EDT and EST.

Whenever Daylight Saving Time (DST) is not in force, Eastern Standard Time (EST) is used. It runs from the earliest Sunday in November to the 2nd Sunday in March. During the rest of the year, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) is employed.

WHERE IS THE EST TIME ZONE USED?

The Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico all use EST. The EST time zone houses about half of the population of the United States. It stretches from north Canada to Panama, close to the Equator. EST in North America is bordered to the east by Atlantic Standard Time (AST) and to the west by Central Standard Time (CST).

CONVERSION OF THE EASTERN TIME TO OTHER TIME ZONES IN THE UNITED STATES.

• Central Standard Time (CST) is an hour behind Eastern Standard Time (EST) 

 So, to switch from EST to CST, subtract one hour or add an hour if going from CST to EST.

• Mountain Standard Time (MST) is around 2 hours late than Eastern Standard Time (EST).

You must subtract two hours from EST to arrive at MST.

• The time difference between Eastern Standard Time (EST) and Pacific Standard Time (PST) is three hours with EST being ahead of PST.

Three hours must be subtracted from EST to convert to PST.

WHAT IS IST TIME ZONE?

India Standard Time, often known as UTC + 5:30, is 5 and a half hours earlier than Coordinated Universal Time (CUT). Which means 5 and a half hours must be added to Coordinated Universal Time to get the standard time in the zone.

Since the IST time zone does not have a one-hour incremental shift like many other time zones, it is regarded as a nonstandard zone of time. Rather, between IST and ST, there happens to be a 30-minute time gap. The IST time zone is mostly followed by regions in southern Asia. It passes across the Indian and Sri Lankan countries. IST is also referred to as Indian or India Time (IT) by those who live in the time zone.

CONCLUSION

This article talks about Standard Time (ST), Eastern Standard Time (EST) and Indian Standard Time (IST). ST was globally accepted during the 19th century, EST is used by western nations like the USA, Mexico, parts of Canada etc and IST used in India. 

ST’s existence is crucial to the survival of all in this era of human existence.