How can the default timezone setting impact the output of date functions in PHP?

The default timezone setting in PHP can impact the output of date functions by causing them to display dates and times in the wrong timezone. To solve this issue, you can set the default timezone using the `date_default_timezone_set()` function to ensure that all date functions operate in the desired timezone.

// Set the default timezone to UTC
date_default_timezone_set('UTC');

// Now all date functions will operate in the UTC timezone
echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); // Outputs the current date and time in UTC