THE INTERNATIONAL DAY LINE
Reading edition
Inasmuch as our earth revolves on its axis, a new day is beginning at some different moment all round the world. This being the case, how are we to fix some definite and official “starting point” for our day—since the day officially begins at midnight, and not at sunrise? To determine this, an arbitrary International Day Line has been drawn, on the 180th meridian—just half way round the globe from Greenwich. Fortunately, this falls in the Pacific Ocean, where there is almost no land. When the sun crosses this line, a new day begins. I have explained this more fully in my book “New Discoveries in Science” in the present series (pp. 40-42).