Talk:Greenwich Mean Time

The initial sentence of this article doesn't really make sense. "GMT is the mean time that the earth takes to rotate from noon-to-noon" would imply that "GMT" is a constant time period of approximately 24 hours. I think this sentence is trying to define "mean solar time" or "local mean time," which is a time standard that averages out the variations in apparent noon over the course of the year. GMT is the mean time at the longitude of the Greenwich observatory, essentially the base time zone for all time zones. I think that latter fact should come first, and then the fact that it is a mean solar time (as are all our standard time zones).

I would suggest something like the following to replace the first sentence: Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT, is the global time standard that is the mean solar time anywhere along the Greenwich Meridian. Because noon (the time when the sun is the highest overhead) does not occur at exactly the same point in every twenty-four day during the course of the year, we use the average ("mean") of each apparent noon as a standard that is called mean solar time.

I'd be happy to make this change if those currently editing the article concur. Or of course one of those editors might make this or a better change, as he sees fit. MelH 18:28, 4 November 2014 (EST)

Go for it, Mel. It is as good a description as any, I suppose. To me, Greenwich Mean Time is whatever time it happens to be in Greenwich - and whatever time it is elsewhere in the world is plus or minus that time, depending on the time zone that part of the world has decided it to be - breath - and what the season is there - or, for that matter, in Greenwich, which was in Daylight Saving Time when I bestrode the Hemispheres.

Did you get all that? AlanE 20:00, 4 November 2014 (EST)