LMT

Local Mean Time

In my opinion, better than GMT is LMT.

Why not go back to the old standards of having it be sun-based... 12:00 is Zenith, making, on a flatland on the equinoxes, about 7:00 be the sunrise... The reason we don't still do that is that a while back, the trains decided that it'd be too complex to keep the time straight.

That's not a problem, now, with GPS systems and the like, and digital watches, and all of that... The only time you'd have to calculate it, really, anyway is when travelling east or west.. not only that, but the act of calculating the time would tell you a lot about your trip how far you're going, how fast you'll get there, all of that.

Not only that, but having 'natural' time like this means you're connected with your world. You can tell the time by looking outside. You can say "six o' th' clock" and have everyone be able to know what that feels like. It would be nice in our virual world, too, because if someone on the east coast says "It's Six", we would have the idea that it's getting dark, it's dusky, evening... it would give us context. As it stands now, you say "six" and it coudl be still midafternon, or already dark, depending on which side of the timezone the person lives on.

	--Aredridel

Calculating LMT

Find out what the longitude of the center of your timezone is... you can do this by counting... multiply your GMT offset (PST is GMT-8) times fifteen... so PST-center is 120° West. Find out your longitude. Find the difference and multiply times four. (There are four minutes in a degree[1]). If you're east, add it, if your west, subtract it from the Standard time in your timezone. That's your LMT. Coincidentally, that's how much after or before noon the sun is at Zenith, too.

[1] 360 degrees on the earth. 24 hours in a day. Divide and get 15... Fifteen degrees per timezone, and since a timezone is an hour wide, that's four minutes per degree.