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The lines are relatively useless. But the angle of longitude itself is of interest, because time according to the sun advances through longitude at a steady rate, moving through 1 degree every 4 minutes, or 15 degrees every hour.

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There's another way of saying this.

The earth revolves once every 24 hours. There are 360o in a circle. Suppose you were in able to remain motionless above the equator, so that the earth could rotate beneath you, and that you were holding a watch. Every hour the earth would rotate through 360o/24=15o.

This means that if you started watching the time just as you pass over the zero longitude you would see the 15o longitude at one hour, the 30o longitude at two hours, the 45o at three hours, and so on, until the saw the 360o longitude at the end of a full 24 hours-back where you started.

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11y ago

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