As in Plus or Minus

Time is manmade. I have included some very good sites

explaining time. One thing the sites are not clear about,

which I felt was important to include for my site, is the

relevance of the plus and minus signs when doing charts.

Very simply put, you are either East or West of the Prime

Meridian Line which is 0 degrees and is located in

Greenwich, England.

If you are West of the Prime Meridian you will see your

Time Zone shown with a minus sign. This means you have to

add your Time Zone number which represents hours to get back

to the Prime Meridian.

If you are East of the Prime Meridian you will see a

plus sign.This means you have to subtract your Time Zone

which represents the hours to get back to the Prime Meridian.

When looking at a time zone map even though you see

the - or + sign for your time zone you will understand that,

for example, if it shows a -5 on the map we use a +5

(or whatever your time zone number is) because all charting

information is determined from the Prime Meridian and in

military time. (This is just a simple explanation).