GMT also know as Greenwich meantime is an imaginary line that passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich UK marking it as a prime meridian dividing the globe into 24 equal time zones 12 on the west of the meridian which would be behind GMT and 12 on the east of meridian which would be ahead of GMT.
Why GMT was introduced?
Prior to GMT, there was no standardization of time and local time of the place you are residing was considered as the correct time. However, this practice of following the local time became difficult for all who were involved in traveling or transporting goods services and people as local times at two different places did not match and this caused great inconvenience. Hence to overcome this hindrance on the 1st of November 1884 GMT was adopted universally at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, USA. As a result, the International Date Line was drawn up and 24 time zones were created dividing the globe into 24 equal time zones, 12 on the west of the meridian which would be behind GMT and 12 on the east of meridian which would be ahead of GMT.
What is UTC?
UTC stands for Coordinated universal time. It is not a time zone like GMT but an agreement that all the countries globally will follow a similar time eliminating any errors occurring on account of variations in local times.UTC is within about 1 second of mean solar time at 0° longitude and is not adjusted for daylight saving time. UTC was first introduced in 1928 however there have been several changes made to UTC. Since the 1st of January 1972, the UTC time is coordinated with an atomic clock and this time standard is followed and accepted globally.
In the upcoming post, we will explain to you what is the International dateline and how it influences travel.
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