International Date Line! Experience the Time-Travel (not really)

The line opposite Prime-Meridian at 180° EAST/WEST longitude is called the Antimeridian. Something based upon it, but highly deviated from it, is called International Date Line (IDL)

I would recommend reading my previous post, to understand the timezones, In the previous post I discussed, how the confusion of sudden date change was placed at IDL by using 180° east/west longitudes instead of 360°.

Let's see what that confusion is, and how world politics changed this line from what should be a straight line, to what it is now in below image.

Time travel

After the international Meridian conference in 1884, the world agreed that the 15° change in longitude should decrease time by one hour when moving west and increase when moving east.

But what about the places right on 180° EAST/WEST aka Antimeridian? Even if IDL was a straight line, there was deliberate time chaos created here. Crossing the IDL traveling east, results in one solar day being subtracted and crossing it towards the west, results in a day being added.

Just a quick trip can let you relive a day in your life or make you lose one, based upon the time and the side you are traveling to :)

Time Travel Example— History Politics & effects

Let's discuss this time travel (sort of) with the example of Samoa

History

Most of the current world is a product of European imperialism & colonialism. Many Archipelagos in the pacific ocean are also not unaffected. Samoa was one of many Polynesian island nations in the deep pacific.

1722 was the dark year when, first european “explorers” reached Samoa. Thereafter, well-known western-greed brought a long history of wars and disputes. Finally, In 1899, Germany & America divided Samoa between them. After Germany’s defeat in the world war, Samoa was shared among Britain, New Zealand & America

To this day, America holds the eastern part, American Samoa, as anUnincorporated territory. However, Western Samoa got independence from New Zealand in 1976 and is now known as Samoa.

Politics

As we saw in the previous post, timezones are more political than scientific.
Samoas is in the east of the Prime meridian, shown as a yellow line in the picture. But, due to its political affiliations, it decided to be in the same timezone as New Zealand. American Samoa however decided to stay at a scientifically correct timezone for 170°W, as it fits American multi timezone standards.

Effects

So this small 135 miles travel between Samoa and American Samoa has weird date time effects

Right now, It is Sunday, 4:50 AM, March 27, 2022, in Samoa. If you fly on a jets from Samoa to American-Samoa at the above green line, approximately an hour flight will take you to Samoa. But time upon landing will be Saturday at 5:50 AM, March 26, 2022.

You’ll get to re-live the date you already lived. Or I can say, you would travel back in time. However, If you go from American Samoa to Samoa, you will never get to experience Mar 26 2022 in your life, so you’ll lose a day in life.

NOTE: Moving between Siberia-Russia and Alaska-America at Bering Straitwould've been a better example. But practically it's not allowed because political hurdles restrict traffic across. But here, just passing just 2 miles of distance can create an experience of different dates.

Major Distortion of IDL

Ideally, IDL should be a straight line, running between the North Pole & south pole on the 180-degree meridian. But, the date changes when you cross this line, so for political & economic reasons, countries choose which side of the line they want to be on. This caused IDL to be as distorted as shown in the first picture in the post.

Here are the major distortions in IDL.

At first, Russia distort it at Bering Strait to have all Russian territory in the eastern timezones, this one at GMT+12
Then America distorts IDL towards the east to encompass the Attu Islands to have a strategic Navy base near Russia in one of the US timezones.
From here, IDL goes back to the 180° meridian for several thousand miles, keeping the Marshall Islands in the eastern timezones, GMT+12.
When IDL reaches the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. it makes a major deviation to encompass the Kiribati and Teraina Islands in eastern timezones, GMT+12 to +14
Distortion increases to keep Samoa in the eastern timezone, GMT+13
from here, IDL moves back but does not go back to the 180° meridian. Instead, it runs parallel to keep Tonga and the Kermadec Islands in the same timezone as New Zealand, GMT+13
After passing New Zealand, IDL merges back to the 180° meridian and follows this path until reaching Antarctica.

Time in instance is not a scientific concept, (time duration might be).We saw how world politics and history affects how we see curent time. It makes me wonder, had someone else colonized, or even influenced the world, other than Europeans,what would’ve happened. The rules must’ve been different.

With that, let's conclude this topic. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or your support by applause.

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