NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: International Date Line --invented by Schedler
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2011 Jul 10, 07:11 -0700
From: Frank Reed <FrankReed@HistoricalAtlas.com>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Sat, July 9, 2011 11:01:13 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: International Date Line --invented by Schedler
<snip>
The borders of time zones can be determined by consulting established laws. But the location of the international date line? There's no rules there...
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2011 Jul 10, 07:11 -0700
Now I understand a bit better what you were getting at, Frank.
I will argue, though, that the 180th meridian makes a lot of logical sense as the IDL because (a) it's opposite Greenwich and (b) it's [mostly] in the middle of a vast empty space of water. So it's a pretty reasonable place to make the switch in day. But, wait, it's not perfect. I assume that from the very beginning the IDL took a westward cut to go through the Bering Strait and not leave the western tip of Alaska in tomorrow-land. But then there's the modern-day fiddling you mentioned -- Kiribati and Kwajalein.
Maybe we need to re-convene the International Meridian Conference???
Lu Abel
I will argue, though, that the 180th meridian makes a lot of logical sense as the IDL because (a) it's opposite Greenwich and (b) it's [mostly] in the middle of a vast empty space of water. So it's a pretty reasonable place to make the switch in day. But, wait, it's not perfect. I assume that from the very beginning the IDL took a westward cut to go through the Bering Strait and not leave the western tip of Alaska in tomorrow-land. But then there's the modern-day fiddling you mentioned -- Kiribati and Kwajalein.
Maybe we need to re-convene the International Meridian Conference???
Lu Abel
From: Frank Reed <FrankReed@HistoricalAtlas.com>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Sat, July 9, 2011 11:01:13 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: International Date Line --invented by Schedler
<snip>
The borders of time zones can be determined by consulting established laws. But the location of the international date line? There's no rules there...
-FER
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