The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-25
WHERE A DAY GETS LOST.
A Ship Crossing a Line in the Pa
cific Sets Her Log One Day Ahead.
From the New York journal.


cific Sets Her Log One Day Ahead.
From the New York Journal.
The lost day in the Pacific is puzzling
the college professors to explain. They
find difficulty in making 1t clear to the
mind of the youthful students just why
there is a line down through the Pacific
ocean. on one side of which it is Sunday
and on the other side Monday
1t Is right at this spot that man going
around the world one way gains a day.
while going the other way he loses a day
out of his life. Every ship crossing this
line marks it's log book one day ahead or
one day behind, according to the direction
in which it is going.
Right on this parallel of longitude it
would be difficult for a man to know
what day of the week it was, if, indeed,
time would not altogether close for him.
Here is the only place on earth where
time may be said to stand still, and where
the ordinary calendar ceases to have any
significance.
In brief, the reason for this lost day or
line is that "a day. is an arbitrary di-
vision of time, based upon one rising and
setting sun, and which itself is caused by
a single revolution of the earth. When
you travel around the world against the
sun you gain day, and when you encir-
Gle the earth with the sun you lose day.
For practical purposes of navigation and
accurate measurement of time the astron-
omers have agreed to drop this day into
the middle of the Pacific
Were a man to travel over the earth's
surface from east to west as rapidly as
the earth revolves, starting al high noOn
the sun would remain Immediately over
head to him for the twenty-four hours
There would have been no sunrise or sun
set for him that day.
CO fa~ -,
concerned he would have been still enjoy
ing the noon hour, while all other men on
the earth were returning to their after
noon labors, going to their homes after
the labors of the day, going to the theater
in the evening, retiring to bed and to sleep
rising in the morning and beginning the
next days labors ad again going to lunch
at noon. During the course of his long noon
hour the calendar would have done it's
work, however.
Let this traveller start at noon on this
same journey and go as slowly as he will
100 years in making the circuit-he will
have by those slow degrees flched from
the calendar one full day and no more
He will have seen the sun rise and set
not so many times by one as the man who
has remained stationary upon the earth's
surface.
When he turns and moves with the same
rate of speed in the opposite direction 10
which It moves 1t will take him Just as
long to cover the distance back to his
starting point, but his relation to the sun.
which counts off the periods of time. will
be remarkably altered. He will enter the
shadow of the earth in half the time that
he would If he remained and allowed the
ordinary revolution of the big globe to
carry him out of sight of the sun
He Will pass through the shadow of the
earth in half the time that he would II he
remained still and will emerge into the
sunlight again with what had been the
under side of the earth to him when he
started. That is to say, he will have seen
a day and a night moon TO noon while
the earth had made only half its revolution,
and he was only half way round.
He will arrive at his starting point at
noon of the second day, according to his
own experience, having passed twice
through the shadow of the earth-night-
while the folks at home had done so but
once. He will have gained a day upon them
and upon the calendar, but that the 1SOth
degree of longitude has been called in to
set'him straightThat is the explanation of
the gaining of day in travelling the world
round from west to east-the way the
world itself is going; and 1t matters not
how long the traveller employs in the jour-
ney, he sees the sun rise and set once Of
tener than the man who stays at home
although there is no jolting of the heavens
to announce it.
Here is another illustration of the lost
day. Imagine a train of cars twenty
four miles long on a circular track the
last car being just in front of the engine
that is, the train making a circle.
The train starts to move at the rate of
speed that will bring the engine back TO
the starting point at the same time next
day. A man on the rear and end starts
to walk to the engine and a man on the
engine starts to walk to the rear end
They walk at a rate of speed that will
bring them at their destination at the
same time the train stops. They pass
each other exactly in the middle of the
train, and at noon the next day the man
from the engine has arrived on the last
platform. and the man from the last plat
form mounts the engine. They have
Travelled exactly the same distance but
in fact. one has travelled forty miles.
while the other has not travelled at all
The man who started from the rear end
of the car has been carried the entire dis
tance covered by the train and has walk
ed the entire length Of the train-he has
passed the starting point twice The man
who started from the engine to walk 10
the rear end of the train has remained
stationary with regard TO the ground
Walking as he has he has seen through
the car windows. hour by hour. the same
tree and sign post that marked the point
at which he started.