Why are the time zones laid out the way they are?

Time zones are a young concept among civilization. According to the Absolute Astronomy website, the first time zone was created by Great Britain for their railroads in 1847. Following this creation, Canada suggested creating a worldwide time zone system in 1879. The times still vary somewhat as some countries use the Greenwich Mean Time, while most now use the Coordinated Universal Time.  The borders of the time zones have since been determined by each country, many will have the entire country within one time zone. Larger countries, such as the United States, will have multiple time zones within their nation. The country then decides were the borders of the time zones will fall. The United States used a combination of state borders and geographical layout to decide where the time changes would occur. Even though the world is now set on a more organized time system, the borders of the time zones can often be confusing, illogical and impossible to remember without a map.