See the current time in cities around the world at once, which is what you actually need when scheduling across time zones rather than converting one pair at a time.
Time zones are less tidy than they look. Offsets are not all whole hours, daylight saving starts and ends on different dates in different countries, and the southern hemisphere shifts in the opposite direction to the northern.
Frequently asked questions
- Why are some time zones offset by thirty minutes?
- Because time zones are political rather than purely geographic. India is five and a half hours ahead of UTC, and Nepal is five and three quarters, reflecting national decisions rather than lines of longitude.
- How does daylight saving affect scheduling?
- Countries start and end it on different dates, and the southern hemisphere shifts in the opposite direction to the northern, so the gap between two cities changes several times a year.
- What is the safest way to propose a meeting time?
- State the time with its zone, and include the date. Naming both removes the two most common sources of confusion, which are ambiguous offsets and unnoticed date changes.