The Time Zone Anomaly

On a perfectly proportioned globe sliced into 24 equal 15° wedges, time zones should be broadly symmetrical from pole to pole.

• In the northern hemisphere:
  • Band 1: ~19 time zones from pole to tropic.
  • Band 2: ~24 time zones across equatorial belt.
  • Band 3: ~19 time zones from tropic to pole.

On the real map (official world time zone data):

• North: 19 / 24 / 32 — the southernmost band is much wider in time zones than the north equivalent.
• On a globe, this makes no geometric sense — distance between lines of longitude should decrease toward the pole, not increase.
• On a flat map, the increase is exactly what you’d expect: lines radiate outward from the North Pole, so time zones stretch wider the further you go from it.

This anomaly is a quiet but rock-solid public domain argument — the numbers come from the official IANA time zone database and timeanddate.com’s own maps.