International Date Line

Kailua-Kona is approximately 3,030 miles away from the International Date Line. The International Date Line runs along the 180° meridian in the Pacific Ocean, while Kailua-Kona is located on the western coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.

If the International Dateline were on land, then any country, state, city, county,

town, or farm it cut through would always have two different calendar dates. Life

would be a constant total nightmare for anyone living and trying to read a local

newspaper, go to school, make a dentist appointment, or run a business there.

On one side it's called the "Eastern Hemisphere", while on the other side

it's called the "Western Hemisphere".

In addition to whatever clock changes you need to make for going to a different time zone, when you cross the international date line heading east you subtract a whole day, and when you cross it heading west you add a day.

The International Date Line follows the 180th meridian to prevent dividing countries into two different calendar days. It bends around certain territories and islands to ensure that each country remains within a single day. This results in the International Date Line not being a straight line.

The Prime Meridian is the zero line of Longitude that runs from pole to pole, passing through the Greenwich Observatory, London, Great Britain.

Since the Earth is roughly spherical (shaped like a ball), you can start out in

either direction from the IDL and eventually wind up in Vanuatu. The trip is

much shorter, however, if you travel generally westward from the line.

The International Date Line is an imaginary line that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole. It marks the boundary between one calendar day and the next. When you cross the line, you either advance a day when traveling east or go back a day when traveling west.

The time difference between the Prime Meridian (0 degrees longitude) and the International Date Line (180 degrees longitude) is 12 hours. Crossing from one side to the other, you would either gain or lose a day, depending on the direction of travel.

We were going along fine there until we got almost to the end of the question.

That's where we found that you too are one of the huge number of people who

thinks that there's a standard set of "lines".

There isn't. Some maps and globes have some lines of constant latitude and

longitude printed on them, and some don't. The ones that do may have them

printed every 45 degrees, or every 30 degrees, or every 20, 15 or 10 degrees.

It's completely up to the publisher of the globe or the map. The mapping software

that I use will print a line every 2 seconds of longitude if I want them. That would

be 648,000 lines of longitude around the world.

If the International Date Line had not been zigged and zagged to avoid splitting

states, countries, or islands into two different calendar dates, it would have

exactly followed the meridian of 180 degrees longitude ... directly opposite the

Prime Meridian and 180 degrees away from it, both east and west.

No, Singapore is in the Singapore Time Zone, which is UTC+8, while Beijing is in the China Standard Time Zone, which is also UTC+8. However, they may have different local times because of Daylight Saving Time adjustments or slight geographical differences.

Samoa is located just east of the International Date Line. This positioning is significant because in 2011, Samoa shifted to the west of the date line to align its time zone with other Pacific islands.

See related link for more information. _________ The Prime Meridian is based on Greenwich, England, the longitude of which is 0 degees. The other meridians are calculated from the Prime Meridian. Knowing where you are in relation to the Prime Meridian is the basis of all nautical navigation which was the reason for its establishment.

The specific origin and destination locations are irrelevant. The only fact that

matters is in which direction you're traveling when you cross the Date Line.

If towards the west, as when traveling from the Cook Islands to New Zealand,

then you're to add one day to the date on your calendar or your wristwatch.

Thus, your time has suddenly become 24 hours later than it was a moment ago.

In effect, you've 'lost' a day.

The SAT is administered in multiple time zones around the world, with test centers following local time. Check your admission ticket to see the specific time and location for your SAT exam.

The time difference between Paris, France, and Belfast, Northern Ireland is one hour. Paris is one hour ahead of Belfast.

New Zealand ranges in longitude between roughly 166.47° East to 178.55° East.

Longitude is measured from the Prime Meridian, so those are the angles

if you start at the Prime Meridian and travel eastward.

Traveling westward from the Prime Meridian, the corresponding angles

are 181.45° and 193.53° .

Throughout almost the past 2 centuries, thousands of cruise ships, cargo ships,

tankers, and a few intrepid solo adventurers have crossed the mid-Pacific, totaling

many thousands of passengers. On alerts from the ships' navigating officers that

long ago became a seafaring tradition, passengers are always notified when a

vessel is about to cross the International Date Line, and they typically flock to the

rails to look for it. Except on the darkest nights, or on the days when the sea is most

turbulent, crowds of people routinely see the line, black and straight and only a few

feet beneath the surface, as the ship glides silently across it and the ship's chronometers

trip in unison to the next or previous day, depending on their direction of travel.

So many sea travelers through a continuous period of almost 200 years have seen the

line, and have even raised a glass and toasted it with their fellow travelers at the

instant of the crossing, that its existence is now common knowledge on the sea, and

no shred of doubt remains in the mind of anyone who has personally traveled by sea,

or who knows anyone who has. In our day, the existence of the line has been confirmed

by thousands of witnesses, sound of body, mind, and sight, no less than that of the

ocean itself.

That's done in order to avoid having any single state, country, or island

split by the date line. If it exactly followed the 180-degree meridian, then

the state of Alaska and the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, among others,

would always have two different calendar dates within the same small area.

That would certainly make for some difficult conditions for normal business

and everyday living.

Nothing special happens. If the flight crew didn't tell you about it, you wouldn't

notice anything. It's handy to know about it, though, because when you cross

the IDL traveling east, you're supposed to turn your watch and your calendar

back a day.

Tonga, while physically located in the Western Hemisphere, is actually considered in the Eastern Hemisphere for purposes of calculating the date. The international date line, which normally runs along the 180th line of longitude, swings in an easterly direction around Tonga and then back to the 180th line of longitude.

That point is in the water of Suva Harbor, about 0.45 mile
off the shore of Suva, on the island of Fiji.

The International Date Line closely follows the 180-degree meridian. It is an imaginary line that determines where one day ends and the next begins. When crossing the International Date Line from east to west, you 'lose' a day, and when crossing from west to east, you 'gain' a day.