Time
In most places on Earth, local time is determined by longitude, such that the time of day is more-or-less synchronised to the position of the sun in the sky (for example, at midday the sun is roughly at its highest). This line of reasoning fails at the South Pole, where the sun rises and sets only once per year, and all lines of longitude, and hence all time zones, converge. There is no a priori reason for placing the South Pole in any particular time zone, but as a matter of practical convenience the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station keeps New Zealand Time. This is because the US flies its resupply missions ("Operation Deep Freeze") out of McMurdo Station which is supplied from Christchurch, New Zealand.
Read more about this topic: South Pole
Famous quotes containing the word time:
“Yelburton: After you work with a man a certain length of time you come to know his habits, his values. You come to know him. And either he’s the kind who chases after women or he’s not.
J.J. Gittes: Mulwray isn’t?
Yelburton: He never even kids about it.
J.J. Gittes: Well, maybe he takes it very seriously.”
—Robert Towne (b. 1936)
“So little time we live in Time,
And we learn all so painfully,
That we may spare this hour’s term
To practice for Eternity.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)
“A man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time he’ll give him sixpence. But the second time it’ll only be a threepenny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he’ll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.”
—Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956)