The clock shows time within the eastern time zone. A time zone is a standard time used in a geographic area. It's the time we've all agreed to follow so it's easier to travel, communicate and barter with people around the world.

These lines aren't straight and neat, many are negotiated and agreed based on the country's needs.

Eastern Time Zone (ET) consists of places that use:

- Eastern Standard Time

- Eastern Daylight Time

Eastern time zones can either be Standard or Daylight depending if the region using the zone observes daylight savings time during spring and summer seasons.

Eastern Standard Time or EST for short is 5 hours behind Greenich time (GMT - 5:00). During the months when daylight savings is observed, Eastern time zone changes to Eastern Daylight Time or EDT which is 4 hours behind Greenich time (GMT -04:00).

This means that the time zones leveraged in eastern time zone regions are either 4 or 5 places behind the starting line of Greenwich.

Just because a region observes an eastern standard time does not necessarily mean they observe daylight savings. Below is a list of places around the world that leverage Eastern Time Zone.

Parts of Canada The state of Quintana Roo in Mexico Panama Colombial Mainland Ecuador Peru Small portion of Brazil in South America Some Caribbean islands Atlantic islands

Knowing the time zone and if an area observes daylight savings makes a big difference when coordinating with people across the world. If you’re doing that often, tools like Time Zones Map can help do the math for you.