Greenwich Mean Time or GMT Clock
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Greenwich Mean Time - GMT Clock
MatsClock-GMT is a Free Flash Clock that will always show you the
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) irrespective of what your computer clock is
showing. The Color Square on top left of this GMT Clock lets you change
the color of the GMT Clock Frame.
What is GMT - Greenwich Mean Time?
GMT means Greenwich Mean Time which was adopted in 1984 during the
International Meridian Conference. This is the time which is taken as
reference the worldover. For example London Time exactly the same as
Greenwich Mean Time for some part of the year. This is because Greenwich
is in England. But in summer BST or British Summer Time is followed
which is GMT + 1 hour.
MatsClock GMT - Greenwich Meridian Time
MatsClock GMT shows you the Exact GMT or Greenwich Meridian Time. Irrespective of which part of the world you take your computer, this MatsClock GMT will continue to display Greenwich Meridian Time, even though your computer clock will keep showing you the local time of the country you are situated.
Why GMT Greenwich Mean Time Needed?
Normally, all human beings relate to the sun to find the time of the
day. We call it noon when the sun is right on top. But if you live in a
country as big as russia which spans many longitudes, then you will find
it is still night in west russia when it is already breakfast time in
eastern parts of russia. Thus there was a requirement to fix the time on
certain longitude as a standard time for people living around that
latitude. If the country is too large then they may have to follow
different times in different longitudes, because looking at the sun the
person on eastern russia thinks it is lunch time as the sun is on top.
But in the western edge of russia a person looking up will think that it
is just breakfast time. To avoid this confusion and for everyone in a
country to follow the same standard each country promulgated the mean
solar time on a standard longitude. But GMT was decided as the universal
time reference for all the countries in the world, so that all human
beings can refer to the same time with offset based on their location on
earth.
How GMT Clock Related to Your Local Time?
Greenwich Mean Time is the solar time at zero degree longitude. The
earth is divided into 360 longitudes. All longitudes are lines that join
the south and north poles of the earth. Each of them are exactly one
degree apart because 15 x 24 = 360. Thus each 15 th longitude is exactly
corresponding to one hour in time. This made humans to decide that the
clocks on each 15 deg longitude will have a time difference of one hour
from a place 15 longitudes away. Thus your local time will be decided on
which longitude is the your position with respect GMT or Greenwich Mean
Time.
Convert Greenwich Mean Time to Local Time
If you know which longitude is your home, then you can calculate
exactly what solar time it is. Each longitude corresponds to 4 minutes.
So if your home is on longitude 76 deg east then you need to ADD 76x4 or
304 minutes or 5 hours and 4 minutes to the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
which you can see in the gmt clock on top of this page.
Why is Greenwich Mean Time Zone Irregular?
Greenwich Meridian is actually straight. But the Greenwich Mean Time
line is not straight because of political and geographical
considerations. Some times a country may be following a standard time
based on the time about a certain longitude. Some countries even have
more than one standard time because of the large size it is spread on.
All these factors may cause the Greenwich Mean Time Zone or any other
time line to be irregular in shape.
If the greenwich meridian is drawn
straight then it will go through many countries who are following their
own standard time and greenwich mean time has no meaning in these
countries. To avoid this confustion between greenwich mean time or local
standard time to follow, the greenwich meridian was drawn to exclude
these country boundries so that only the countries that fall in the
greenwich meridian and whose standard time is same as greenwich mean
time falls in the greenwich time zone.
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and Universal Time Constant (UTC)
The greenwich mean time GMT and Coordinated Universal Time or
universal time constant UTC are same. Microsoft Windows Operating System
also talks in terms of UTC. If you double click or right click on the
clock running in your computer bottom right in the task bar,and click on
the change date and time option and then click on the change time zone.
Now you will find many options like UTC, UTC + 0:30, UTC +1:00 etc UTC
is used to get the local time reference from the greenwich meridian time
so that everyone knows what is the corresponding time in any country or
place in the world.
Without UTC or the GMT it is just not possible to go
from one palce to another in a fast mode of transport like an aircraft
or even a slow mode of transport like a ship sailing over the sea
because if you travel east you lose time and if you travel west with the
sun then you gain time.
Country Standard Time - MatsClock GMT
GMT or Greenwich Mean Time is used as the country standard time
in many countries. The major cities that use GMT as their standard
time are Accra, Abidjan, Casablanca, Dakar, Lisbon London and
Dublin. The countries that maintain GMT or UTC Universal
Co-ordinated Time as their country standard time are Burkina Faso,
Cote Dlvoire, then in Denmark the Faroe Islands and Danmarkshavn of
Greenland and its surrounding areas. Then there are countries
using GMT as their country standard time like Gambia, Ghana, Guinea,
Guinea-Bassau, Iceland, Ireland, Liberia, Mali, Mauritiania,
Morocco, Portugal (including Madeira but excluding Azores islands),
Sahrawi Republic (it has limited recognition), Sao Tome and
Principe, then there is Canary Islands in Spain, Senegal, Sierra
Leone, Togo etc.
Lastly GMT is used as country standard time in the
United Kindom (including Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey and Saint
Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha). The best part is that all
these countries have their local time and GMT/UTC which are the same
and they do not have to convert it like all other countries which
keep an offset time from the Greenwich Mean Time.
