ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Time standard

Have you ever heard someone say "What time is it?"? Time is something that we use every day to know when we should wake up, eat, play, and go to bed. But did you know that time is not the same everywhere in the world? That's why we have something called a time standard.

A time standard is like a rule book that tells us how we should keep track of time. Just like how you use a clock or a watch to know what time it is, scientists and people who work with time use special devices called atomic clocks to keep track of time really precisely. These atomic clocks measure time using something called "atomic vibrations," which is a really fancy way of saying how tiny particles move.

But why do we even need a time standard? Well, imagine that you live somewhere where the sun rises and sets at a different time than it does in another part of the world. If you didn't have a time standard, it would be really hard to schedule things with people who live far away from you. That's why we have created something called "time zones." Time zones are like slices of the world that are all set to the same time standard.

For example, if it's 2:00 pm in New York, it might be 11:00 am in Los Angeles because they are in different time zones. Scientists and other people who work with time use something called "Coordinated Universal Time" or "UTC" for short. This is like the most important time standard because it's used all over the world.

So, next time someone asks you what time it is, you can tell them the time where you are and know that someone on the other side of the world is using the same time standard!