Friday, 9 March 2018

Can time difference between two places be greater than 24 hours?

Can time difference between two places be greater than 24 hours?

YES!

Theoretically the maximum difference can be 24 hours, but to answer your question, we need to look for time zones that are not defined theoretically but do exist. That is, beyond GMT+12 and beyond GMT–12.

As it happens, beyond GMT–12 does not apply to any time zone. But we do have GMT+13 and GMT+14!

What this means is,
Time difference between GMT+14 and GMT–12 is that of 26 hours.
Time difference between GMT+13 and GMT–12 is of 25 hours.
Time difference between GMT+14 and GMT–11 is of 25 hours.

(Did you note an interesting thing: all the places with these time zones have such huge time differences despite being SO close to each other in the Pacific!)

Regions which use the time zone GMT+14 or GMT+13:

In 2009, Samoa moved the International Date Line to the other side of its territory, which means that its time zone was changed from GMT–11 to GMT+13. It observes GMT+14 in the southern summer.
Line Islands of Kiribati observe GMT+14 as standard time.
Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, Tokelau, and Tonga observe GMT+13 all year round.
Fiji and New Zealand observe GMT+13 in southern summers.

Regions which use the time zone GMT–12 or GMT–11:

Baker Island and Howland Island use GMT–12, though they are uninhabited.
American Samoa and Niue use GMT–11.

So now, from the above sets, pick up your pairs based on the season in the regions at a particular time. The pairs will be such:

A region with GMT+14 and GMT–12 in a particular season.
A region with GMT+13 and GMT–12 in a particular season.
A region with GMT+14 and GMT–11 in a particular season.
These will be pairs of places with time difference more than 24 hours at a time!
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Originally Answered:
The longest time difference would be between Napari,Kiribati and Samoa(American).
They can be 25hours and 10 minutes apart.

This is possible because the International date line is not a straight line.

The image below will give you a better idea :

For further reference, you may visit the site :

:) :) :)

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Originally Answered:
In fact, there is a 25 hour time difference between some locations.

The international Date Line (IDL) passes in between the islands of Samoa and American Samoa. It is not a straight line following the Antimeridian. Rather the IDL zig-zags around various island chains. Thus, Samoa, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu as well as New Zealand's Kermadec Islands and Chatham Islands, all have the same date. Meanwhile, American Samoa, the Cook Islands, Niue, and French Polynesia are one day behind.

This crookedness of the IDL is further enhanced due to daylight saving time being used in some of the territories, shifting them a further hour out of sync with the natural time.

To this effect, we can see that when UTC time is at Thursday 10:15, it is Wednesday 23:15 in American Samoa, (UTC-11), and Friday 00:15 in Kiritimati (UTC+14). For the first hour (UTC 10:00–10:59), this is true for both inhabited and uninhabited territories, but during the second hour (UTC 11:00–11:59) it is only true in an uninhabited maritime time zone twelve hours behind UTC (UTC-12).

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