In what scenarios should the timezone be specified when working with time calculations in PHP?

When working with time calculations in PHP, it is important to specify the timezone to ensure accurate and consistent results, especially when dealing with date and time functions that rely on the server's timezone settings. This is crucial when working on applications that require precise timing or when handling date/time data from different timezones. To specify the timezone in PHP, you can use the `date_default_timezone_set()` function to set the desired timezone before performing any time-related operations.

// Specify the timezone before performing any time calculations
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

// Now you can work with dates and times in the specified timezone
$currentDateTime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
echo $currentDateTime;