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How to Calculate the UTC Offset

UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time. It is a universally accepted standard of regulating time on earth. The UTC along earth's prime meridian is considered standard. The prime meridian is a virtual line between north and south poles that passes through England and France. The UTC of other regions is calculated by adding or subtracting UTC offset from the standard UTC. The UTC offset for any region can be calculated from its position on earth relative to the prime meridian.

Things You'll Need

Map of earth with UTC time zones

Instructions

- 1
  Find and open a map of earth with UTC time zones drawn. A link to such an online map has been provided as a reference below.
- 2
  Locate the region on the map for which you want to determine the UTC offset.
- 3
  Identify the UTC band in which the region of interest lies. This is a band of constant UTC, that is all regions in this band are at the same UTC. Note that all these bands are not perfectly straight and some cover more space on their left or right. This has been done for convenience of defining times for different regions. The central band along the prime meridian is the standard UTC. Each band on the right of this is incremented by one UTC offset while each band on the left is decremented by one UTC offset. For example, the third UTC band from the standard UTC band has an offset of +3 hours. Greenland, which is located in the third band on the left has an offset of -3 hours.

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