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Monday, October 1, 2007: The Day that Never Happened
Somewhere between the 12 hour flight from California to New Zealand the 1st of October was lost. I’m not sure where the day went but we left California on 30 September at about 9 p.m. and arrived in New Zealand on 2 October around 6:30 a.m. After putting some thought into it a calm came over me and the answer was clear. The loss of the day was due to the International Date Line. The International Date Line sits at 180 degrees longitude and when you cross the line from right to left you advance one calendar day ahead. And the opposite is true when crossing the International Date Line from left to right.

(continued...)


For example, if you were to fly from the United States during the early morning on April 1st you would arrive in New Zealand on April 3rd during the evening. The next morning, April 4th, you hop on a plane to go back home only to find yourself arriving on the evening of April 3rd. This all may seem a bit confusing but I have some nifty pictures to help us through this.

So, the orange ball thing is an orange but it will represent the world. The pork chop looking thing is the United States (I never said I was an artist!)

This line represents the International Date Line which lies at 180 degrees longitude.

These two islands represent New Zealand.
On the day of our flight we left from Los Angles, California and flew across the International Date Line from the right side of the line to the left side and landed in Auckland, New Zealand. In this process we lost a whole day.


And that is how the day that never happened didn’t happen. Any questions?



Comments:

Hey Nicholas, your dad & I wanted to say hi. I guess your a day older and missed the fun. Love Deborah & Dad


Hey Nicholas! I'm keeping up with your goings on...it looks very cold there! Thanks for the visual description of the international date line :) Miss you! Baby David is kicking up a storm! He doesn't know it yet but he misses you too! :)


haha thats cool. and crazy. hey, lord of the rings was filmed in new zeland! love ya nick.
marco

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This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ANT-0619622 (http://www.nsf.gov). Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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