Why is Afghanistan time zone 30 minutes?

Ideally time zones would be slices of Earth's surface 15 degrees of longitude wide that keep the same time. However, in some cases, nations and parts of nations have decided being within a specific time zone is not preferable and have chosen 30 minute or even 45 minute offsets.
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Why is Kabul 30 minutes ahead?

The time zone is primarily observed by Afghanistan (Asia). Afghanistan Time is what is referred to as a non-standard half-hour time zone. This means there is a 30 minute difference in local time from the actual one-hour time zone interval you'd usually see if traditional time standards were used.
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Why does Afghanistan have a weird time zone?

AFGHANISTAN TO CHINA

China, in a bid to impose some sort of national unity on its frontier territory, has decided the whole country should stick to one time zone. This was decided in 1949 and Beijing time (UTC+8) was picked. This creates a 3.5 hour jump when crossing into Afghanistan – where the time is UTC+4.5.
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Why are some countries 30 minutes ahead?

That has largely to do with the politics in each of those places. For example, in New Delhi, India, they found themselves halfway between two meridians, and therefore decided to be 30 minutes between each, as opposed to adopting one time or the other.
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What country has a 30 minute time zone?

Naturally, India decided to be 30 minutes between the two time zones, which is why the country is only 30 minutes ahead of nearby Pakistan, for example. Ironically, India is also two and a half hours behind anywhere in China, because the People's Republic decided they wanted the entire country to be one time zone.
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Why is Afghanistan time 30 minutes off?



Why is Kathmandu 15 minutes off?

Nepal is 5 hours and 45 minutes ahead of GMT, because it sets the meridian of Nepal Standard Time at Gaurishankar, a mountain east of Kathmandu. The odd time difference between Nepal and India has resulted in a national joke that Nepalis are always 15 minutes late (or, Indians are 15 minutes early).
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Why dont we have 24 time zones?

As Earth rotates on its axis, it moves about 15 degrees every 60 minutes. After 24 hours, it has completed a full rotation of 360 degrees. The scientists used this information to divide the planet into 24 sections or time zones. Each time zone is 15 degrees of longitude wide.
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What is the weirdest time zone?

Time Zone In Newfoundland

Newfoundland in Canada uses Newfoundland Standard Time (NST) which has an offset of UTC - 3:30. During Daylight Saving, the area switches to an offset of UTC - 2:30.
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What is the biggest time difference in the world?

You can see that the most extreme time zones are +14 hours at Line Islands (Kiribati), and -12 hours in and around Baker Islands (US). Therefore, the maximum possible difference between times on Earth is 26 hours. That means that at 11:00 PM of a Monday in Baker Island, it is 1:00 AM of a Wednesday in Line Islands.
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Why does Australia have 30 minute time zones?

In its colonial days South Australia was on a central time zone - an hour behind the east - until 1899. Under pressure from the chamber of commerce to adopt eastern standard time (EST), the government of the day came up with a compromise that put clocks 30 minutes behind those on Australia's eastern seaboard.
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Why is Kabul time difference?

Similar situations happened in Iran and Afghanistan, where the capitals Tehran and Kabul, respectively, are located 3.5 and 4.5 hours east of UTC. Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, is located near 5 hours and 45 minutes of solar time east of UTC, so that time has been chosen as Nepal's time zone.
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Why is there a 26 hour time difference?

Some areas on earth use a time zone of +13 hours UTC or even +14 hours UTC. Essentially, this means that areas with -12 hours UTC and +14 hours UTC will have a difference of a whole 26 hours, which is beyond the theoretical 24 hours.
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Is all of Afghanistan in the same time zone?

Currently observing AFT – Afghanistan Time. Currently has same time zone offset as AFT (UTC +4:30) but different time zone name. Afghanistan Time (AFT) is 4:30 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This time zone is in use during standard time in: Asia.
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Why does Australia have 3 different time zones?

When the Northern Territory was separated from South Australia and placed under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, the Territory kept Central Standard Time. Likewise, when the ACT and Jervis Bay Territory were broken off from New South Wales, they retained Eastern Standard Time.
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Is Afghanistan ahead or behind US in time?

Afghanistan is 10:30 hours ahead of the center of the United States. PLEASE NOTE: United States may span multiple time zones.
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Why does France have 12 time zones?

France: France has 12 time zones ranging from UTC-10 to UTC+12. This unusual span is due to France's scattered national territories. The areas in French Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean are mainly responsible for this.
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Is there a place that's 24 hours ahead?

The nation of Samoa also observed the same time as the Samoa Time Zone until it moved across the International Date Line at the end of 29 December 2011; it is now 24 hours (25 hours in southern hemisphere summer) ahead of American Samoa.
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What is the smallest time zone in the world?

There are some islands with their own time zones which are small, but the Australian Central Western Time Zone looks to be by far the smallest land-division time zone by geographic size, as well as population.
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Which country has 1 timezone?

Though China is almost as wide as the continental United States, the whole country is officially in just one time zone — Beijing time. So when it's 7 a.m. in the Forbidden City, it's also officially 7 a.m. 2,000 miles to the west in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region — even if the stars are still out there.
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Is there an empty time zone?

There is one timezone that is completely uninhabited: the UTC-12:00. It covers only two islands: Baker Island and Howland Island that are both uninhabited (owned by US).
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Why does China use one time zone?

But in 1949, as the Communist Party consolidated control of the country, Chairman Mao Zedong decreed that all of China would henceforth be on Beijing time for the purposes of national unity.
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Are there 40 time zones?

As each time zone is 1 hour apart, we could expect that in the world there were 24 time zones, however, several time zones are separated by 30 and 45 minutes, so the total number of time zones is 40.
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Are there 37 time zones?

By about 1900, almost all inhabited places on Earth had adopted one or another standard time zone, but only some of these used an hourly offset from GMT. It took many decades before all time zones were based on some "standard offset" from GMT/UTC. Today, there are 37 different local times in use. 37.
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Who invented time zones?

In 1878, Sir Sandford Fleming (1827–1915) developed the system of worldwide time zones that we still use today. He proposed that the world be divided into 24 time zones, each spaced 15º (fifteen degrees) of longitude apart (like 24 sections of an orange).
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