What is the dateline?

How to live twice the same day? How to jump from today into the next day without a time machine? Where on the planet New year comes early? The answers to these questions are related to this concept, as the dateline. It is the conditional boundary drawn on the Earth's surface and separating, which differs by about a day.

Day

As is known, the calculation of time — the procedure is not abstract. It is associated with the fundamental cosmic laws, which is expressed in the rotation of our planet around its axis and around the Sun. These patterns were observed and form the basis of timekeeping in ancient times. However, the necessity of considering the motion of the planet and adjust dates if you move to a significant distance occurred only in 1521, when he made his voyage around the world Magellan. Command, arriving to the point of his departure, found that Europe is living in the 7th of September, whereas in the logbook the date September 6 — had disappeared one day. Since documentation on the ship was conducted very carefully, the probability of error was very low. Soon the inquisitive minds of Europe understood where during the voyage of Magellan was gone one day.

Dateline: definition

The Earth rotates around its axis from West to East. The mariners led by Magellan were of opposite directions. They went around the planet from East to West, seeing one sunrise in less than an travelling met in Europe.

To prevent this sort of embarrassing confusion did not arise every time someone decides to get around the world, was the dateline. She almost completely passes through the Meridian of 180º and is the boundary where the time of day remains the same, but changes the calendar date. For example, if West of a line on the calendar may 18, East - 17-E. In this case, and there, and watch shows about the same time.

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Location on the geographical map

In contrast to the zero Meridian date line almost does not fall on the land area. Due to this, in most cases, when you move the planet is not necessary to subtract or add one day. As already mentioned, the main part of the line coincides with the Meridian 180º. It connects the two poles, once on dry land only in Antarctica. First time time fence deviates from the Meridian in the East of our country. Then the dateline passes through the Pacific ocean, breaking the Bering Strait. To the South the boundary again deviates from the Meridian of 180º: it wraps around from the West Aleutian Islands. Further, the dateline runs through the waters of the largest ocean of the Earth. The following significant deviation is in the area of the Islands of Samoa, Fiji, Tongatapu, Chatham, Kermadec. Line in this region is East of the Meridian and then returns to it to the South of New Zealand.

Near the Bering Strait time fence separates the Diomede Islands. The distance between them is only four kilometers. When on the island of Krusenstern, belonging to the United States, still continues, “yesterday” on the Ratmanov island, which belongs to Russia, has “today”.

Rule

Change the dates to be taken at the intersection line. If the ship was moving from East to West, that his team need to increase the number of calendar one. In case of moving in the opposite direction it decreases. On a segment where a temporary boundary is rejected, skirting the Islands of Oceania, the team has the right to change the date, only after passing the Meridian of 180º, if the ship is not going to go into one of the ports, that is, will not have the need of synchronization with local time.

It Turns out that when crossing the line in a certain direction, you can double-live the same day. Some romance arrive just in time such a journey under significant dates: anniversary, birthday.

Moving boundaries

The date Line on the map didn't always look like today. In the Philippines almost to the middle of the last century, the calendar sheets were rolled over in accordance with the “American” basis. While on the island of Celebes, which is situated on the same geographical longitude, adhered to the so-called Asian date.

In Alaska calendar synchronized with time in the country to which it belonged: up to 1867, with Russia, and then with the United States. The island of Samoa and twice changed its method of calculation in accordance with the needs of trade. In 1892, when he actively traded with the United States, a decision was made about the movement of the temporary border in the West. The inhabitants of the country in the same year twice met dawn on 4 July. A century later, small, 2011, at the fore trade relations with countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The date line was moved East from the island. In the result this year after 29 November it is the 31st.

Who in the world first met the New year?

A Significant deviation of the line fromof the Meridian near the equator is due to the decision of the government of Kiribati in 1995 to allocate for the new Line Islands time zone. The reason for this was weighty enough. Kiribati was divided into two zones at the same time as the one on the calendar was listed, for example, June 14, on the other had 15.

The Line Islands earlier than anywhere else on Earth, a new day begins. The population of that territory first met on 1 January. It is the latter fact aroused the indignation of the population of Tonga and new Zealand Islands. They were going to meet the first Millennium, but the formation of a new time zone deprived them of such opportunities.

At its core, the dateline is only a conventional boundary. At its core lie some physical laws. The line was created for the convenience of international communication. Change one date to another when crossing this boundary is similar to the clock when daylight saving time to standard time. These actions help the individual to relate their movement or activity with the cosmic processes, but directly from them does not arise.