STANDARD TIME IN GEOGRAPHY EXPLAINED
Standard time is the synchronization of clocks within a geographical area or region to a single time standard, rather than using solar time or a locally-chosen meridian (longitude) to establish a local mean time standard. For millennia, people have measured time based on the position of the sun; it was noon when the sun was highest in the sky. Sundials were used well into the Middle Ages, at which time mechanical clocks began to appear. Cities would set their town clock by measuring the position of the sun, but every city would be on a slightly different time. As the telegraph and railroad began to speed words and passengers between cities, the use of local solar time created increasing problems. A cross-country rail traveler in the United States in the 1870s might have experienced as many as 24 different local time standards between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts . Eventually, the railroads stimulated the development of a standardize...