NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: A navigational feat
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2016 Apr 30, 01:10 +0000
From: Gary LaPook <NoReply_LaPook@fer3.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2016 10:48 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: A navigational feat
From: Lu Abel <NoReply_LuAbel@fer3.com>
To: garylapook---.net
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2016 10:13 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: A navigational feat
From: Gary LaPook
Date: 2016 Apr 30, 01:10 +0000
On minute earlier Just west of the 180th meridian it was 2359 M (ZD -12) December 31st while in London it was 1159 Z December 31st and it was 2359 Y (ZD + 12) December 30th just east of the 180th meridian. One minute after local midnight it was 0001 M January 1 west of the meridian, 1201 Z and and 0001 Y December 31 east of the meridian.
gl
From: Gary LaPook <NoReply_LaPook@fer3.com>
To: garylapook@pacbell.net
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2016 10:48 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: A navigational feat
At exactly midnight on the 180th meridian, 0000:00.000 M & Y 2400:00.000 M & Y, 1200:00.000 Z, the date and day are are the same on both sides of the line. For that one instant every day the date and day is the same all around the world. (Except for the weird time zones that don't follow the standard pattern.
gl
From: Lu Abel <NoReply_LuAbel@fer3.com>
To: garylapook---.net
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2016 10:13 AM
Subject: [NavList] Re: A navigational feat
For one, the tale begs the question of when a new century starts. Most people (as in this tale) think the 20th century spanned from Jan 1, 1900 to Dec 30, 1999. But there was no year zero. So the first century spanned 100 years starting at the year 1 -- in other words, from 1 to 100 (ignoring, of course, the fact that the BC/AD calendar is a much later invention). And, of course, this confusion about when a new century starts occurred in 2000 also.
From: Frank Reed <NoReply_FrankReed@fer3.com>
To: luabel{at}ymail.com
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2016 9:13 AM
Subject: [NavList] A navigational feat
Here's a tall tale about a ship navigating near the equator-dateline intersection. Naturally this is a joke, a tale of whimsy, a fish story, and it should not be taken literally. But suppose we do take it literally. How many problems can you find? The origin of this millennial story dates back to at least 1990, and probably earlier, but it's modelled on a yarn by Mark Twain. Twain sailed the globe in 1895/96 and published his book "Following the Equator" in 1897. He makes a couple of whitty comments about the equator and dateline, e.g.:While we were crossing the 180th meridian it was Sunday in the stern of the ship where my family were, and Tuesday in the bow where I was. They were there eating the half of a fresh apple on the 8th, and I was at the same time eating the other half of it on the 10th and I could notice how stale it was, already.Note: the version of this more modern tale posted today by Jackson MacDonald was corrupted, so I am re-posting another copy (attached, below) which was sent by Gary LaPook last summer.Frank Reed
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