In the zone

Quick, look at the clock. What time is it? Now, what time do you think it is in Paris? What about Australia? It might surprise you to know that it’s not the same as where you are. That’s because of something called time zones.

The sun

You might already know that the Earth rotates one full turn each day. But the sun stays in one place, so it shines on whatever part of the Earth is facing it. So if you live in a part of the world facing the sun, you’re in daytime. If you’re facing away from the sun, it’s nighttime.

The United States

If you’ve traveled around the United States, you might have visited another time zone. This country is spread across six time zones. Starting in the East, there’s Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time and Pacific Time. Alaska and Hawaii each have their own time zone. From Eastern Time to Alaska Time, there’s one hour difference in each one, and

Hawaii is two hours behind Alaska. For example, when it is 8 a. m. in Eastern Time, the rest of the time zones look like this:

Central Time: 7 a. m. Mountain Time: 6 a. m. Pacific Time: 5 a. m. Alaska Time: 4 a. m.

Hawaii Time: 2 a. m.

So if you live in New York and want to call your grandma in Juneau, Alaska, to wish her a happy birthday, you’d better wait until lunchtime. If you call her first thing in the morning, she’ll still be sleeping!

Around the world

By now you know that the farther east you go, the later it is. So what happens if you travel really far, like to Europe? Depending on where you live, you could be eating breakfast when kids there are getting out of school for the day. Travel even farther, like to Asia, and you might be getting up for the day when kids there are going to bed.

But what happens if you keep on going? Eventually, you’ll be back where you started, right? So there must be a spot where you go back to the beginning. That spot is

called the International Date Line. That’s an imaginary line in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and if you cross it, you either go back one full day or forward one full day. Let’s say you’re traveling from New Zealand to California. New Zealand is a full day ahead of California, so when you cross the International Date Line, the time will go back a day, and you’ll arrive before you even left! When you go back to New Zealand, you’ll skip a full day. It gets confusing, but unless you travel across the Pacific Ocean a lot, you probably won’t have to worry about it much.