The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1915-05-08
R DAYS IN ONE
Seeming Impossibility Easily Shown
as a Fact.

Three days can exist at the same
time! It sounds impossible, but it is
nevertheless a 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
a day in going round the world; if
one travels eastward, n gains a day,
writes Hereward Darlington in the
Sunday New York World Magazine.
Could n travel at the rate of 10 de-
grees a 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 in
to 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 a day regulates the calendar for
one circumnavigating the globe. This
international date line" as it is cal
led, passing north and south and di-
viding our world into two equal parts,
is the 180th meridian and crosses the
Pacific ocean where fortunately
there is very little land-taking a
slight bulge outward to include ST.
IBERIA, and one the other way to in
clude .Attu island, which belongs to
Alaska geographically. West of this
line is Monday and east of it Sunday.
When it is noon Monday in Lon
don, Tuesday has already begun at
Cape Deshnef, Siberia, but Monday
morning has not yet dawned at Attu
island; nearly half an hour of Sun
day still remains there. We are
thus confronted with the paradox of
three days co-existing at the same
time!
We must remember that every day
begins at midnight. If we could trav-
ell round the world at the same rate
that it travels, beginning our flight
at noon, it would be p~erpetually moor
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 matter of fact, lasts f~orty-eight
hours-sometimes even longer. This
seems another contradiction. Yet it
can be explained. Any given day, say
Christmas, begins Gas that day. i'm
mediately west of the 180th parallel.
One hour later Christmas day begins
Is degrees west of the date line, two
hours later 80 degrees west of the
line, and so on round the globe. Those
living just west of the date line
would have enjoyed twelve hours of
Christmas when it reached England,
eighteen hours when it began in the
United States and t~wenty-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 seer that each day
lasts for forty-eight hours. AS a mat
ter of fact, a day lasts in some places
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 midnight. AS
midnight sweeps westward success
i've places see the beginning of the
day. When the day begins in London
it has been that same day at Cape
Deshnef twelve hours and forty-five
minutes. When this same day arrives
al Attu island it has been twenty-five
hours and twelve minutes since it
began officially at Cape Deshnef.
Since the day will then last twenty
four hours at Attu island, before it is
spent forty-nine hours and twelve
minutes will have elapsed from the
beginning of that day until the time
it closes. Thus three days can exist
at one time, as before explained.