The Press., 1915-06-30
THREE DAYS IN ONE.
This Quee1 Condition Lasts Half
 an Hour Every Day.
A FREAK OF CHANGING TIME.

When 1t Is Noon on Monday In Lon don, Tue3 day Has Just Begun at Cape Deshnef, Siberia, but Sunday Has Not Vet Ended at Attu Island. Three days can exist at the same time! It sounds impossible, but it is nevertheless Il fact that when it is very late Sunday night at Attu island it is Monday noon at London and Tuesday morning at Cape Deshnef; Siberia! If one travels westward one loses u day in going round the world. If one travels eastward one gains a day. Could one travel at the rate of 15 de- grees day one would lose exactly one hour each day. In twenty-four days the circuit would be complete. Inasmuch as sun and earth are con stantly revolving and day merging into night, Sunday passing into Monday, etc, it is obvious that at one point on the worlds surface an arbitrary line must be set, to the east of which is one day, to the west of which is the next day. This immediate jump of day regulates the calendar for one circum. navigating the globe.
 This international date line," as it is called, passing north and south and di- viding our world into two equal parts, is the one hundred and eightieth merid- ian and crosses the Pacific ocean, where, fortunately. there is very little land-taking a slight bulge outv ard to include Siberia, and one the other way to include Attu island, which belongs to Alaska geographically. The map will show this. West of this line is Monday and east of it is Sunday.
 When it is noon on Monday in Lon don Tuesday has already begun at Cape Deshnef, Siberia, but Monday morning has not yet dawned at Attn island. Nearly half an hour of Sunday still remains there. We are thus con- fronted with the paradox of three days coexisting at the same time.
 We must remember that every day begins at midnight If we could travel round the world at the same rate that it travels. beginning our flight at noon it would be perpetually noon all the way round! Yet we should lose a day.
 While at any particular point on the surface of the earth a day is twenty four hours long. every day, as a mat ter of fact lasts forty-eight hours sometimes even longer. This seems another contradiction. Yet it can be explained.
 Any given day, say Christmas, be- gins Gas that day) bnmediately west of the 1S0th parallel. One hour later Christmas day begins 15 degrees west of the date line, two hours later 30 de- grees west of the line and so on round the globe.
 Those living just west of the date line would have enjoyed twelve hours eighteen hours when it began in the United States and twenty four hours Ca whole day) when it began in Alas ka. Already Christmas had existed twenty-four hours on this globe, but having just begun in western Alaska it will last there twenty-four hours longer.
 We have just seen that each day lasts for forty-eight hours. As mat LcI OI ldCl, d udy ldSt III pluCCS more than forty-nine hours. This is because of the irregularity of the date line previously mentioned.
 Let us begin an imaginary journey from Cape Deshnef, Siberia, at mid night. As midnight sweeps westward successive places see the beginning of the day. When the day begins in Lon don it has been that same day at Cape Deshnef twelve hours and forty-five minutes.
 When this same day arrives at Attu island it has been twenty-five hours and twelve minutes since it began of ficially at Cape Deshnef. Since the day will then last twenty-four hours at At tu island before it is spent forty-nine hours and twelve minutes will have elapsed from the beginning of thet day until the time it closes.
 Thus three days can exist at one time, as before eXplained.-Herewar Darlington in New York World.