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Wikipedia says the international date line is “a cartographic convention, and is not defined by international law.” The “line” wasn’t a convention at all in th
by TedDoesntTalk 2y ago
Wikipedia says the international date line is “a cartographic convention, and is not defined by international law.”
The “line” wasn’t a convention at all in the 16th century so how did sailors experience loss of a day?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line#:~:text=The%20International%20Date%20Line%20(IDL,some%20territories%20and%20island%20groups https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Date_Line#:~:t....
- canjobear 2y agoThe line is the reason you don’t lose a day now. When you circumnavigate the world westward, the earth has rotated one less time for you than for everyone else, so it appears you have lost a day. By artificially switching the day at the date line you avoid this kind of slippage.
- psunavy03 2y agoOn a ship, you also keep the same time zone as local time for the area you are steaming through. Going consistently westward to get somewhere is a bonus, because every other day you get to sleep in an extra hour.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y agoOddly enough, on the Queen Mary 2, sailing eastward from NYC to Southampton, they change the time just after lunch. No extra sleep-ins!
- rcxdude 2y agoBecause the count of the days for the people they encountered was derived by traveling in the other direction around the earth.