A silly question about time zones

[Nikitin]

heh, a very stupid question, but hey what the heck.

Let's say it's monday 23:00 GMT +0. If we move to GMT +2, it's already Tuesday, 01:00.

If we move to, say, GMT+12 it's Tuesday 11:00. Now, if we move one timezone to GMT -11 it's 12:00.. Monday right?? can someone give me a short explanation of all of this? I am very confused about when you change days and so on..

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

The day changes on the International Dateline. If you have one foot on one side of the line, and the other foot on the other side of the line then part of you is enjoying a pleasant weekend while the other part is hard at work doing a job you hate. If both feet are right on the line then you are drowning because the line zig-zags to avoid landfall.

 

[micromass]

So, so you're standing on the south pole and you're running in circles around the south pole. Then you're constantly crossing the International Dateline. Does that mean that you can let several days pass in just a matter of hours?

 

[phyzguy]

If I start at any point on the Earth and move one time zone west, it is an hour earlier. But imagine flying continuously around the Earth to the west - it can't just keep getting earlier and earlier indefinitely, or I could go back and say hello to Columbus. So I must have a discontinuity somewhere. This could be anywhere on the Earth, but by convention, this point is at the international date line. So if I start in London (for example) and travel west, it keeps getting earlier and earlier until I cross the international date line, at which point it suddenly gets 24 hours later, from UTC-12 hours to UTC+12 hours. It then continues to get successively earlier until I get back to my starting point.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

So, so you're standing on the south pole and you're running in circles around the south pole. Then you're constantly crossing the International Dateline. Does that mean that you can let several days pass in just a matter of hours?

You will lose 24 hours, one hour at a time for every 24 hours you gain all at once when you cross the dateline. Don't forget to adjust the date when you get to GMT +1.

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

So, so you're standing on the south pole and you're running in circles around the south pole. Then you're constantly crossing the International Dateline. Does that mean that you can let several days pass in just a matter of hours?

I knew you were from the future!

 

[Nikitin]

thanks!