information:extraction
Time-zone (longitude) correction

A standard time zone covers roughly 15° of longitude, so any point within that zone which is not on the reference longitude (generally a multiple of 15°) will experience a difference from standard time that is equal to 4 minutes of time per degree. For illustration, sunsets and sunrises are at a much later "official" time at the western edge of a time-zone, compared to sunrise and sunset times at the eastern edge. If a sundial is located at, say, a longitude 5° west of the reference longitude, then its time will read 20 minutes slow, since the Sun appears to revolve around the Earth at 15° per hour. This is a constant correction throughout the year. For equiangular dials such as equatorial, spherical or Lambert dials, this correction can be made by rotating the dial surface by an angle equaling the difference in longitude, without changing the gnomon position or orientation. However, this method does not work for other dials, such as a horizontal dial; the correction must be applied by the viewer.

However, for political and practical reasons, time-zone boundaries have been skewed. At their most extreme, time zones can cause official noon, including daylight savings, to occur up to three hours early (in which case the Sun is actually on the meridian at official clock time of 3 PM). This occurs in the far west of Alaska, China, and Spain. For more details and examples, see time zones.