question about international dateline...?

Question

i was born on dec 5 19?? in Windsor Ont Canada. my aunt & uncle were in Thailand at the time. when they received the news it was still only dec 4. i don't understand how it works.

i know the answer is "the international dateline" but i don't understand why.

can you explain it to me??

Answer 1

There has to be a space on this little ball of water and dirt that we call earth that divides one day from the next. Since a circle is 360 degrees, Since the Prime Meridan, 0 degrees, starting point was arbitraily determined, years ago to be passing through Greenwich England, the halfway point was determined to be at the 180th Meridan - give or take a jig or jag along the way to account for places where people lived. When you pass the 180th Meridan, aka as the International Date Line, going from east to west, you lose a day. So today becomes yesterday. Going from west to east, you gain a day, so today becomes tomorrow. Your aunt and uncle were on the other side of the International Date Line, therefore December 5, today, in Windsor Canada was December 4 in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday. Hope that helps to confuse you even more.

Answer 2

I was born in Windsor, too! Cool!

Okay, what happens is: since the earth is round and revolves around the sun, some parts are having daytime while others are experiencing night. [Sorry if that's too basic, I don't what you already know]. To make it easier for everyone, there are time zones based on how much sunlight is being received at that point.

When you go east, you're getting earlier and earlier [I'm basing this on the assumption that you live in Canada], or losing time. Sort of like Daylight Savings Time, when you spring forward. However, if you kept traveling east, you'd keep losing time forever, and that wouldn't work....

Enter the dateline. It's placed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If you cross it going west, you're going into the next day. If you cross it going east, you're back to the day before. It's like spinning in a circle; you go all the way around until you're back where you started.

Which means: your relatives were on the other side of the dateline. That's all.

Answer 3

First, I think you have it the other way around. Thailand is across the International Dateline, and so if it was December 5 in Ontario, Canada, it was December 6 in Thailand.

The reason for the difference is because the Earth is a globe, and if a globe turns once on its axis in 24 hours, that means that from one point, all the way around, should be equal to 24 hours. But this poses a probem: at some point, after 24 hours of time zones elapse, one must be in another day as well! So scientists simply created the International Dateline, which is in the Pacific, to denote a ful 1 day change. Anything east of the IDL is a day earlier, and west (like Thailand) is a day later. It's just a way to organize time zones because of the fact that at any point in time, there is a full 24 hours worth (meaning a day) of time zone differences.

In reality, it is somewhat subjective, because if you are in a boat in the Pacific and you cross the dateline going east, it doesn't mean you actually go back in time. It's just a convenient way to organize time zones. Without the dateline we'd basically have a longer-than 24 hour day because the time would keep shifting in one direction.

Answer 4

Its like the timezones. It can be day time here, but night time over on the other side of the world. You were probably born in the early morning, while it was still the day before (night time) on the other side. It's quite simple really.

Answer 5

For every fifteen degrees of longitude you add or subtract an hour, depending on your direction. Make a model with the lines, or get a globe with the lines of longitude marked; if you go east, add hours; go west, subtract hours.

Answer 6

it's complicated