The short video above shows the full effect of XKCD 1335 Now, which constantly updates to show you what time it is in the world where you are.
It has obviously been accelerated to show a full day’s spin in a few seconds. The actual comic completes one revolution per day.
Hidden text: This image stays roughly in sync with the day (assuming the Earth continues spinning). Shortcut: xkcd.com/now
More about it below with the help of Explain XKCD:
The picture is divided in 24 segments representing the 24 hours of the day.
At noon and midnight, the break between segments is indicated by the tip of a dark grey triangle.
The picture rotates by 3.75 degrees every 15 minutes, as does the Earth so that it is constantly up to date in showing which regions are currently at which times of day.
The picture change seems to happen halfway through a 15-minute time increment (that is, at 7½, 22½, 37½, and 52½ minutes after each hour), so that the picture is always correct for the nearest multiple of 15 minutes.
The map projection of the earth in the middle of the picture shows an azimuthal equidistant projection with the South Pole in the center.
This is unusual, as such projections typically put the North Pole in the center.
But, in this case, may be necessary for the map rotation and the corresponding 24-hour clock graduations to both be the more conventional clockwise.
Another reason might be just to depict all major land-masses (including complicated Antarctica, which is not otherwise referenced) in a non-discontinuous manner. Randall was playing on projections before in 977: Map Projections.
The list of cities and countries doesn’t match the map exactly – notice how the continent of Australia is shifted counterclockwise of the words “most Australian cities”.
This is because the map is centered relative to the time zones and the local variations. The map shows the configuration of time zones concerning daylight saving time (also known as summer time) at the time of the comic’s initial release (February 2014); it was being observed in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and other countries not named in this comic.
If the map were to stay accurate through the year, the location of place names would have to move over the next few months as parts of the southern hemisphere went off DST and parts of the northern hemisphere went onto it; however, the map failed to change on the morning of March 9 as it should have (to recognize the start of DST in North America).
In many countries “business hours” are considered to be from 9 am to 5 pm.
With some exceptions, including emergencies, it is generally considered rude to place a telephone call to someone’s residence when most people are asleep; Randall portrays this period as extending from 10 pm to 8 am. This may be a reference to the 10 pm “cutoff” time discussed in an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
“Rude to Call” was also the name used by a Gmail experimental opt-in feature in 2009, which added a crossed-out phone symbol next to the sender if it was night in the sender’s time zone when the reader loaded the email on their screen.
At midnight at UTC we can see this situation:
- 00:00 UTC Greenwich Mean Time
- UK, Portugal
- West Africa
- 01:00 UTC Central European Time
- Most of central Europe
- Nigeria, and many more countries belonging to the West Africa Time zone
- 02:00 UTC Eastern European Time
- Eastern Europe, many countries like Bulgaria, Romania or Greece
- The Levant
- Egypt
- 03:00 UTC UTC+03:00 (East Africa Time, Eastern Europe Forward Time, and Arabia Standard Time)
- Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, and more
- Kaliningrad and Belarus
- Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and more.
- Iran is at Iran Standard Time, using an offset of UTC+03:30
- 04:00 UTC UTC+04:00
- Moscow Time (became UTC+03:00 on 26 October 2014, a couple of years after the publication of this comic)
- United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, and more
- Afghanistan is at Time in Afghanistan, using an offset of UTC+04:30
- Iran is at Iran Standard Time, using an offset of UTC+03:30
- 05:00 UTC UTC+05:00
- Pakistan, Western Australia, Maldives and some France former colonies.
- Afghanistan is at Time in Afghanistan, using an offset of UTC+04:30
- India and Sri Lanka using UTC+05:30
- Nepal is using a much more odd offset at UTC+05:45
- 06:00 UTC UTC+06:00
- Bangladesh, Bhutan…
- UK British Indian Ocean Territory
- Russia at Yekaterinburg Time, also Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan
- China only use one time zone (+08:00) but Xinjiang and Tibet unofficially use +06:00
- India and Sri Lanka using UTC+05:30
- Nepal is using a much more odd offset at UTC+05:45
- 07:00 UTC UTC+07:00
- South-east Asia like Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and more
- Christmas Island belonging to Australia
- Russia is also using the Omsk Time
- 08:00 UTC UTC+08:00
- Western Australia
- China uses only one time zone while the country spans about five.
- Singapore
- Philippines
- Perth
- 10:00 UTC UTC+10:00
- Brisbane and the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria
- US: Guam and Northern Mariana Islands
- 11:00 UTC UTC+11:00
- Micronesia, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
- Russia Vladivostok Time
- 12:00 UTC UTC+12:00 or UTC−12:00
- Kamchatka (a Russian peninsula at the east Siberia), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu and more
- 14:00 UTC UTC+14:00 or UTC−10:00
- Hawaii, Samoa
- French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and more
- Line Islands, belonging to Kiribati
- 15:00 UTC UTC−09:00
- Alaska (some islands of Alaska is at -10:00 and a few city’s are at -08:00)
- French Polynesia
- 16:00 UTC UTC−08:00 or Pacific Time Zone
- US West Coast
- Canada or (British Columbia and Yukon)
- Mexico (Baja California)
- 17:00 UTC UTC−07:00 or Mountain Time Zone
- US: Denver, and much more
- Canada: Alberta (Calgary, Edmonton), British Columbia, more
- 18:00 UTC UTC−06:00 or Central Time Zone
- Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua and more
- US: Chicago, Texas except of some most westernmost counties, and many more
- 19:00 UTC UTC−05:00 or Eastern Time Zone
- Eastern Canada like Ontario or Quebec
- US East Coast including New York and Florida.
- But also Cuba, Haiti, Panama and much more countries
- 20:00 UTC UTC−04:00 or Atlantic Time Zone
- Canadian Maritimes: New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia. (Newfoundland uses UTC-03:30)
- Chile
- Greenland
- Most of the Caribbean Islands.
- 21:00 UTC UTC−03:00
- Coastal Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, French Guiana, the UK Falkland Islands, and more
-
23:00 UTC UTC−01:00
-
Cape Verde
-
Azores (part of Portugal)
More XKCD maps:
- 8 Really Bad Map Projections
- The World According to Americans (Who Really Know Their Geography)
- How To “Improve” The Map of The United States By Cleaning Up Some State Borders
- How To Date An Undated World Map
- What Would Happen If You Pulled A 10m Plug In The Mariana Trench
- All The Land In Our Solar System
- Map Projections & What They Say About You
- XKCD Explains The Cause Of Landscape Features Of The United States
You can buy Randall Munroe’s books here:
- What If?
- What If? 2
- How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
- Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
- xkcd: volume 0
What do you think?
Paul says
Suggest running this on a loop for full enjoyment:
1. Right click in the player
2. Select “Loop”
Brilliant Maps says
Good call, originally had it as a gif, but too big to host on site.