00:00Listen to this. Taylor Swift takes a plane from Los Angeles to Tokyo at 10am on February 20th.
00:08She spends 12 hours in the plane, but lands only at 2pm the next day in Tokyo.
00:14The difference is 28 hours. So, how did this temporal distortion occur?
00:19Well, it's because of this strange line.
00:21It's the date line. You know, this imaginary line that splits the globe in two
00:27and decides who should celebrate the New Year first.
00:29These are the inhabitants of the island of the line, so to speak.
00:32But by crossing this line, you will not only have the impression of entering a teleporter,
00:37it will change your day.
00:40You go from east to west, and hop, here you are 24 hours later.
00:44If you travel in the opposite direction, crossing the west line to the east,
00:49you go back a whole day.
00:52One might think that the date change line is a beautiful straight line
00:56that marks the temporal distortion in the ocean.
00:59But in reality, it's as if someone had taken a rule and said to himself,
01:04let's complicate things a bit.
01:06The line zigzags in all directions,
01:08wraps around the islands,
01:10and creates a huge confusion.
01:12For example, the islands of the Great and the Little Diomede
01:16are only 4 km apart from each other,
01:19but they have a temporal gap of 21 hours.
01:22Things can still get complicated depending on the country's time zone.
01:26For example, if you travel 1,061 km
01:30through the date change line between Baker Island and the Tokelau Islands,
01:34you have to add 25 hours.
01:36In other words, it's a day and an hour.
01:39And if that doesn't seem weird enough to you,
01:41wait a little longer.
01:42Things are getting worse.
01:44When it's 6 am on Thursday in New York,
01:46it's still Wednesday night in American Samoa.
01:49Meanwhile, in Kiribati, it's already Friday.
01:52So it's three different and simultaneous days,
01:56all because of an imaginary line.
01:58This phenomenon happens every day,
02:00between 10 am and 10.59 am.
02:05Why is the date change line so ridiculous?
02:08Good question.
02:10Although these zigzags seem totally arbitrary,
02:13they actually have a logical basis.
02:17It's actually an invented concept,
02:20based on the rotation of the planet.
02:22The Earth is constantly spinning,
02:24and it takes it about 24 hours, or a day,
02:27to make a complete rotation.
02:29To guarantee synchronization,
02:31humans divided the Earth into 24 time zones,
02:3415 degrees apart from each other.
02:36But what is the starting point of a day on Earth?
02:39In fact, it was necessary to determine
02:41which of these 24 zones, or lines,
02:44would be the starting point, or the chronological center.
02:47We needed a reference point,
02:49a line from which we could start adding,
02:52or subtracting time,
02:54when we were moving east or west.
02:57This line is what we call today the first meridian.
03:01But here's the hiccup.
03:03The choice of the location of this starting point,
03:05the first meridian,
03:07is totally arbitrary.
03:09The idea of establishing a line where the days start and end
03:12dates back to at least the 14th century.
03:14At the time, cartographers did what they wanted,
03:17choosing their own line of division east-west,
03:19called meridian.
03:21Which, by the way,
03:23is only a sophisticated Latin word for noon.
03:26In the absence of a universal norm
03:28to determine the beginning or end of a day,
03:30sailors who made long voyages
03:32had to manage on their own,
03:34trying to manage the time they gained
03:36or lost along the way.
03:38This is how, in 1884,
03:40people finally decided to organize all this mess.
03:4325 nations met
03:45at the prestigious Meridian International Conference
03:48in the United States,
03:49with a goal in mind.
03:51Decide on a line that would serve as the first official meridian.
03:54Finally, whether we like it or not,
03:56they were determined to create the date line
03:59that the whole world would accept and follow
04:01from that moment on.
04:03The first meridian was established in Greenwich,
04:05in England,
04:06and the date line was placed on the opposite side.
04:09It zigzags around the 180th meridian.
04:12It seems simple, doesn't it?
04:14But that's where the nightmare really started.
04:17The chosen date line
04:19did not settle for passing through uninhabited areas.
04:22And no,
04:23it divided some countries in two,
04:25creating a real chaos.
04:27Indeed, if you divide the world
04:29with a completely straight vertical line,
04:31you end up with situations
04:33where half of a country is ahead of one day
04:35and the other half behind one day.
04:38Take the Kiribati, for example.
04:40The country is mainly centered on the Gilbert Islands,
04:43which are just west of the date line.
04:46However, in 1979,
04:49their territory grew a little
04:51with the Phoenix Islands and the Island of the Line,
04:53located well east of the date line.
04:56Suddenly, the Kiribati found themselves
04:58on horseback on the date line.
05:01This created a number of problems
05:03for the companies.
05:04People from both sides
05:06could only communicate by radio or telephone
05:08four days a week.
05:10To remedy this strange situation,
05:12the Kiribati decided to jump
05:14on Saturday, December 31, 1994.
05:18Thus,
05:19they went from Friday, December 30, 1994
05:23to Sunday, January 1, 1995.
05:26And the new year arrived a day earlier than expected.
05:29Yippee!
05:30After that,
05:31the date line moved east
05:33to bypass the whole country.
05:35This adjustment took place in different countries.
05:37For example,
05:38when the cartographers arrived
05:40on the Aleutian Islands, in Alaska.
05:42And yes,
05:43the line had to make a new detour
05:45to encompass them.
05:46And when they arrived south of the equator,
05:48guess what?
05:49Another curve to the east
05:51in order to include other islands again.
05:53It is largely for this reason
05:55that the straight line began to zigzag.
05:57This irregular line is designed
05:59to avoid land as much as possible
06:01in order to reduce problems
06:03related to change of day.
06:04You can't find yourself on horseback
06:06on the date line
06:07and live on Monday and Tuesday simultaneously.
06:10But you can cross it by boat.
06:12In fact,
06:13some trans-pacific deluxe cruises
06:15even offer a forfeit.
06:16Time travel
06:17for adventurous travelers
06:19who want to cross the line
06:21and jump into the future.
06:23In the end,
06:24if the date line is so ridiculous,
06:27it is because it was established
06:29on the basis of a series of arbitrary decisions,
06:31of historical oddities
06:33and of a lot of confusion.
06:35But it is not because it was reorganized
06:37in the 19th century
06:39that there is no more confusion at all
06:41regarding time zones today.
06:43The first meridian also established
06:45the coordinated universal time,
06:47the famous UTC.
06:48The UTC never changes,
06:50whether for the time of summer
06:51or for any other reason.
06:53However,
06:54in 1908,
06:55Canada decided to spice things up
06:57by creating the time of summer.
06:59The idea was to advance the clocks by one hour
07:01compared to the normal time
07:03to better enjoy the light of the sun,
07:05the evenings of spring,
07:06summer and autumn.
07:08The idea was so brilliant
07:09that most countries adopted it,
07:11but not all.
07:12You just have to take Nepal.
07:14This country never used the time of summer,
07:16which means that its clocks
07:18do not change all year round.
07:19As you probably know,
07:20countries whose territory is extended
07:22often have more than one time zone.
07:24This is the case of the United States,
07:26which has 11 time zones.
07:28Australia has 9,
07:29while India,
07:30well,
07:31India is a special case.
07:33India is a large country
07:34whose territory extends
07:35over about 3,000 km west to east.
07:37It should therefore have
07:38three time zones in total,
07:40but it only has one.
07:41This means that the sun rises
07:43almost 90 minutes earlier in Dong,
07:45in the far east,
07:46than in Guarmati,
07:47in the west.
07:48Why is there only one time zone?
07:51Quite simply because
07:52they decided so.
07:53Do not forget
07:54that the timeline
07:55and the time zones
07:56are invisible,
07:57artificial,
07:58and,
07:59as you know now,
08:00totally arbitrary.
08:01Therefore,
08:02if a country wants
08:03to stick to a single time zone
08:05to simplify the processes
08:07and trade operations
08:08within its borders,
08:10why not?
Comments