Daylight Hours across the World

In school we are learning about SPACE! We have learned about the planets and about the earth, sun and moon. The orbit of the moon around the earth is 28 days (about a month). The orbit of the earth around the sun is 365 days (about a year). And the spin of the earth on its axis takes 24 hours. The spin of the earth on its axis affects our time zones around the world.



In 1884 (with people moving more quickly with trains), people from 27 countries met to agree a system of time zones for the world. There set up 24 zones (which are one hour apart) and they are counted from a line in Greenwich in London called the Prime Meridian. The earth spins anti-clockwise on its axis so that means that here in Tanzania we are facing the sun before all of you in Europe and North America.

In Tanzania we are GMT (Greenich Mean Time) +3. This means that when it is 8:00am in London, England, it is 11am here. When it is 8am in Vancouver, Canada, it is 7pm here. Where do you live and what is the time difference between us?

The earth tilts on its axis. This means that there are different seasons. When a hemisphere is tilted towards the sun it is summer and there are long days. When it is tilted away it is winter and the days are short. But we live near the equator and our days are almost all the same all year.

I am doing a survey on daylight hours across the world. Please can you answer the four questions on my survey (click below). I am trying to find out how long or short the days are in different places on the globe. Please pass this on if you know friends in other countries! I will let you know what we discover! Thank you!

Click here to take survey