<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">An interesting piece of trivia/history popped up in the news today. The borders of South Australia (and hence the boundaries of some Australian time zones) look like straight lines on most maps, but have some kinks in them.<div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Most notably for this mailing list, part of the eastern border is misaligned due to an incorrect timekeeping reference from GMT.</div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-01/why-south-australias-borders-are-anything-but-straight/9107568" class="">http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-01/why-south-australias-borders-are-anything-but-straight/9107568</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""></div></div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class=""><div class="">It was meant to run along the 141st meridian line of longitude.</div><div class="">But longitude is measured with time references to Greenwich Mean Time — and watches were not that great in the 1800s.</div><div class="">The result was a 3.6-kilometre gap where the borders were meant to have met.</div></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">"Fundamentally the difference came down to a discrepancy that the nation had at the time," Mr Burdett said.</div><div class="">"The longitude that had been determined for Fort Macquarie [Australia's reference point] was out by two minutes.</div><div class="">"Hence ours was out by two minutes and the discrepancy ended up in that border."</div></div><span id="x-apple-selection:end"></span></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Cheers,</div><div class="">Gil</div></body></html>