The Earth spins far away from the sun, so when one side basks in daylight, the other side is tucked into night. To make sense of time in this scenario, people came up with the idea of time zones, creating boundaries that gave rise to time differences. Although it must have been a complex calculation, it eventually led to most places on Earth waking, working, and sleeping at similar times. Quite a story, isn’t it?
Since this logical arrangement was based on what people intuitively understood, living without comprehending the formula poses no problem. In the past, traveling afar meant adjusting your watch to the local standard time, but nowadays, thanks to the internet, that inconvenience is a thing of the past. Though, folks sporting classic wristwatches might still have to manually tweak those watch hands…
However, there’s one thing that remains puzzling—the International Date Line. Whether you’re on a plane or a boat, crossing this line changes the date, which feels distinctly different from merely adjusting the clock an hour forward or back. The Date Line was designed to solve the paradox of a day’s time difference when traveling from England’s Greenwich Observatory to the opposite side of the globe. It sits around the 180-degree meridian in the Pacific Ocean. If it were a straight vertical line, it would lead to absurd situations like neighboring houses having different dates, especially around places like Siberia’s Chukchi Peninsula or the Aleutian Islands in the USA. That’s why it’s drawn to avoid crossing continents. For similar reasons, in 2011, Samoa shifted the Date Line to align its time zone with its frequent trade partners in Asia and Oceania, sacrificing December 30th of that year. It’s a logical and rational move compared to ancient human sacrifices, yet it still exudes a mystical shamanistic vibe.
In ancient times, when people lived and died close to their birthplace, the Date Line might not have caused much confusion. But today, with the world so interconnected and frequent overseas business trips, planning schedules can become a headache. Imagine leaving Seoul at 10 PM on a Sunday, enduring a nine-hour flight to Hawaii, only to arrive at 7 AM the same Sunday—it’s anything but intuitive!
Endure a nine-hour flight, and you can travel fifteen hours back in time… This time machine already exists!
Frequent flyers will get this: wrapping up a grueling New York business trip, you board a weekend morning flight only to land on a Monday, heading straight to work. That might make you want to demolish the Greenwich Observatory! 😅
A few years back, I flew from San Francisco to Australia to visit my brother. Departing on December 23rd and arriving on the 25th, I was keenly aware that Christmas Eve had evaporated from my life that year. On any other day, it might not have been memorable, but missing Christmas Eve? I felt like filing a grievance with someone. My brother greeted me at the airport with a smirk, saying,
‘Spent Christmas Eve on a plane, huh?’
But in reality, there was no Christmas Eve at all. Unlike Samoa Islanders, who gained the advantage of trading with Australia and New Zealand throughout the week, my only memory was dozing off in my seat for hours. It felt unfair at the time, but looking back, it has become a rather fascinating memory. 🌟
Anyhow, people in days gone by, living amidst unresolved phenomena, must have found life quite interesting. If I were born back then, maybe I would’ve stumbled upon something worth keeping… But hey, I can dream, right? 🤔
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