Q 01/05

What is the full range of standard UTC offsets in use around the world?

A) UTC−12:00 to UTC+14:00

B) UTC−12:00 to UTC+12:00

C) UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00

D) UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00

Answer · why

A) UTC−12:00 to UTC+14:00

Most offsets are whole hours, but a few zones add 30 or 45 minutes, as in India and Nepal.

Q 02/05

Solar time shifts by how much for every degree of longitude?

A) One minute

B) Four minutes

C) Ten minutes

D) Fifteen minutes

Answer · why

B) Four minutes

That is why solar noon in Bristol comes about ten minutes after London's; Bristol lies 2.5 degrees west.

Q 03/05

Which British rail company began using Greenwich Mean Time in November 1840?

A) London and North Western

B) Midland Railway

C) Great Western Railway

D) Great Northern Railway

Answer · why

C) Great Western Railway

Portable chronometers carried the time; other companies followed and it became known as "railway time".

Q 04/05

When did GMT become the legal time for Great Britain?

A) 1840

B) 1855

C) 1868

D) 1880

Answer · why

D) 1880

By 1855 some 98 per cent of public clocks already showed it; some clocks had two minute hands, one local and one GMT.

Q 05/05

Which colony adopted a nationwide standard time in 1868, 11½ hours ahead of GMT?

A) New South Wales

B) Cape Colony

C) New Zealand

D) Ceylon

Answer · why

C) New Zealand

It was based on longitude 172°30′ east and called New Zealand Mean Time.