When you go across international date line from east to west do you lose or gain a day?

Answer 1

if you take off in New Zealand and fly over the international date line and land in Hawaii you fly into yesterday gaining about 16 to 18 hours depending on time of year.

And, of course, if you fly in the opposite direction you lose a day.

If you travel from west to east across the date line, the next day will be the same day you just lived through. For example, If you crossed the date line on a Wednesday, the next day will be Wednesday again. But if you are traveling from east to west across the date line, and you cross on a Tuesday, than the next day will be Thursday, skipping Wednesday altogether.

Answer 2

Traveling west across the date line, you crank your calendar ahead 24 hours.

So we suppose you'd call that a 'loss' of a day, since you don't get to use those

24 hours.

But that's only a problem if you're migrating permanently and never coming back.

If you ever cross the date line in the other direction, you'll crank your calendar

back 24 hours, and you'll live the same 24 hours twice. That'll be the pay-back

for the day you 'lost' when you traveled west.

Answer 3

The international dateline does not follow the meridian exactly. If you travelled south along it you would neither lose or gain a day.

The Internatinal Date Line is a north-south meridian. You do not gain or lose going north or south on the Date Line - you have to go east or west to gain or lose a day.

(Actually, because it zigzags back and forth, you would occasionally wind up both "gaining" and "losing" a day several times as you traveled, depending on where you started from.)

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

The International Dateline joins the north and south poles, and it's more than

13,000 miles long. When you cross it, at any point on it, you either gain or lose

a day, depending on which direction you're going.

-- If you're traveling west, like from Los Angeles to Japan, you lose a day ...

turn your clock forward to the same time 'tomorrow'.

-- If you're traveling east, like from Australia to the US, you gain a day ... turn

your clock back to the same time 'yesterday', and live yesterday all over again.

Answer 6

When you cross the International Dateline GOING WEST, you turn your clock
forward 24 hours, and immediately tear a page off of your calendar. The effect
is as if you "lose a day".

When you cross the International Dateline GOING EAST, you turn your clock
backward 24 hours and get ready to live those hours all over again, and you
glue the most recent page back onto your calendar and get ready to live it again.
The effect is as if you "gain a day", or get the chance to "repeat a day".

This whole system of shenanigans is all similar to the way you "lose 3 hours"
when you fly from Los Angeles to New York, and the way you "gain 3 hours" when
you fly the very same route in the opposite direction. THAT doesn't seem to bother
or confuse anybody, but doing the same with whole days is apparently more than
some can accept.