What happens at the International Date Line?

Answer 1

When you cross the International Date Line time zones change and you are in a different part of the world.


*edit -- well actually you'd be in the same part of the world but it is agreed that the International Date Line is where the name of the day changes if you happen to be travelling. This can be very confusing because if you stop and think for a moment, you will realise that the time we call MIDNIGHT, sweeps around the world totally oblivious of some silly human line on the water.

Now --- the Pacific Ocean from say, Sydney to Seattle, is a fixed number of SUN hours wide regardless of the IDL. Depending on daylight saving in each place, the Pacific can be 5 or 6 or 7 hours wide. That does not change just because of the IDL. ( That is unless you want to become immersed in this name change.)

Daylight saving for the month of May means that the US West Coast Time is seven hours different from that of Sydney Australia. Midday Thursday in Sydney is 7pm on Wednesday in Seattle. Now consider this, at 3am Seattle time on Thursday morning, it is 8pm on Thursday in Sydney Australia.

What became of the International Date Line?

Midnight is the transition from one day to the next and when it's 7am on Thursday in Seattle, then Sydney Australia has just passed midnight into Friday, the day in advance of Seattle.eay to understand you just passed from one day to another

Answer 2

Nothing, other than you would age according to the time on the date line. Time does pass on the International date line; the area passes by the Sun once a day like every other location on the Earth.

Answer 3

Nothing in particular 'happens', and if you're napping or reading a book at

the time, you won't even know that you've crossed it. But if you did cross

the IDL at some point during your trip, then you need to make a change to

your calendar, sometime before you reach your destination.

-- If you traveled toward the east, then it instantly became a day earlier when

you crossed the line. You must turn your calendar wrist watch back 24 hours,

and take the last daily page that you tore off of your calendar and stick it back

on again.

-- If you traveled toward the west, then it instantly became a day later when you

crossed the line. You must turn your calendar wrist watch forward 24 hours, and

rip a page off of your daily calendar.

If you've crossed the IDL and neglected to make one of these adjustments

sometime before you land, then when you arrive at your destination, the day

that you believe it is will be one day different from the day that everyone else

there is observing. Everybody around you will think that you're out of whack,

when in fact you're merely out of sync.

Answer 4

When you cross the IDL from east to west ... like going from the US to Japan ... you move your

watch and calendar to read a day later. You skip over 24 hours, and you 'lose' them.

When you cross it going from west to east ... like toward the US and Canada from Asia ... you move

your watch and calendar to read a day earlier. You get to live the same 24 hours all over again, so

you 'gain' a day.

Answer 5

Nothing will happen, you'll just be sitting down. the universe will explode

Answer 6

When you cross the international date line going from east to west, the date moves forward by one day. Likewise, when you cross going from west to east, the date moves back one day.

Answer 7

If we cross the International Date Line going Eastwards we would go from 10 pm on 12 March to 10 pm on 11 March.

Answer 8

It depends on which direction you're going when you cross it.

If you cross from west to east, you go to yesterday.

If you go from east to west, you go to tomorrow.

Answer 9

change your calendar by 1 day...