为了解决在海上计算经线的问题，1675年英格兰国王查理二世下令建造了皇家格林尼治天文台，同时他还悬赏了一大笔奖金，给予第一个发明出在海上也能准确计时的钟表的人。

He offered an enormous cash prize to anyone who could build a clock that would remain accurate at sea.

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他们选取了经英国格林威治的经线作为标准线(这各标准已经被海员使用了几个世纪了)。

They selected the longitudinal line that runs through Greenwich, England, as the standard from which they would measure (it had already been used by sailors for centuries).

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到了近代，将地球表面按经线等分为24个时区，这是由1884年国际经度会议制定的。

To modern time measure, people divide the surface of the earth into 24 time zones according to longitude lines. This method was established by the International longitude Conference in 1884.

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