Huh. A Question Wikipedia Can't Answer?

I would write a post tonight, but I'm busy researching a question.

I was watching The Santa Clause 2 tonight. (I wasn't watching very attentively, because I was making risotto in order to use up the vat of chicken broth I had after Soupfest '07.) At any rate, I was watching The Santa Clause 2 and trying to guess the ending. He had to be married by a certain time, if I recall, and I decided the movie would use the device that they always use in legal TV shows - they have to serve the papers by midnight! They've run out of time! But wait - doesn't the business have an office in Hawaii? They're 12 hours behind us - it isn't midnight yet! And that office is served, and the day is saved.

The Santa Clause 2 didn't go that way, but it made me think - what time zone is the North Pole in?

At first, I confused time zones with longitudes. That really freaked me out, but then I went to Wikipedia, here, and found that time zones don't all meet at the poles. Plus, I found out that any Ice Station in Antarctica uses the same time as its supply station in New Zealand.

It would make sense if they just stuck the North Pole in the same time zone as Greenwich, but couldn't it just be in the same time zone as Greenwich -12, or the same time zone halfway across the earth (what it appears they call 180 degrees)? No matter whatever time you used, a person could travel directly South and then have to set his watch ahead by up to 12 hours.

So what's the answer? I'm just looking out for Santa here, people.

Comments

[Zayrina]

http://www.imakenews.com/symmttd/e_article000129741.cfm

[Erin]

My brother likes to get text messages from his Georgia while we're visiting our grandparents in Mississippi because then they're "from the future".

I'd like to think that it's perpetually 9:00om at the North Pole. Because 9:00 is early enough that you can still get work done, late enough to get drunk and/or go to bed. Also, it's when the good TV comes on.

[Erin]

That should be pm. My hands are covered in flour, is my excuse.

[Becs]

It's always now.

[~~Silk]

I've posted the question here and there, and hope to get some responses. In the meantime, I found http://tinyurl.com/27ycqd, a time zone converter that shows 10 time zones in Antarctica, but none for Arctica (which isn't a continent). I've read that tourist expeditions to the north pole use Longyearbyen, Norway, time (Central European time).

[~~Silk]

Ok, got some answers:

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Didn't you use Google? Here's the first hit they gave me: http://ask.yahoo.com/20050302.html . It seems reasonably authoritative.

In a nutshell, the poles (exact geographical points) use UTC. The nearest camps, i.e., civilized locations, use whatever is convenient - New Zealand for Antarctica, Moscow for the unnamed one nearest to the North Pole.

Where did you or your friend look in Wikipedia? Their North Pole entry has a paragraph that says basically, it's whatever time you want it to be.

Officially, time zones disappear at exactly +/- 90 degrees latitude. That's where the lines of longitude meet.

Regards,
[Roman]
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That was Roman. You can probably see from the tone of his response why he sometimes ticks me off. Next is Mark, an acquaintance:

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Hi Silk -

"The lines of longitude that establish our time zones are so close at the North Pole, the Arctic region uses UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) when local time is necessary at the North Pole. The North Pole experiences six months of daylight and six months of darkness."

http://geography.about.com/od/learnabouttheearth/a/northpole.htm

Cheers,
Mark
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UTC is left as an exercise for the reader.

[Hot Mom]

NORAD is taking care of Santa tonight, Queenie.

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm

And, no, I don't know what time it is at the North Pole. I would assume every time zone.

[TheQueen]

Zayrina - Well, there you go. Still, if they walk south it's going to give someone serious jet lag.
Erin - 9:00 is way too late to do anything except lie in bed and watch Anderson Cooper.
Becs - My cubemate has a clock that says "NOW NOW NOW" instead of I, II, III, IV, etc.
~Silk and friends - Well, you just tell Roman that "UTC, also known as Greenwich Mean Time" is not true, and he has no authority now in my book after quoting a source with a statement like that.
Hot Mom - Oh, yeah, like Norad isn't run by Dabney Coleman.

[~~Silk]

"UTC, also known as Greenwich Mean Time" is not true, and he has no authority...." Oh! Oh! Good catch! Don't think I'm not gonna USE that! Knock down his condescending attitude a bit. (Bouncing in my chair.)

[TheQueen]

~Silk - Hah! He won't be taken down even a half-peg, I'll bet.