importance of international date line

Posted on August 13, 2020 at 1:06 pm by / tornado sounds 1 hour / Cover story band net

This happens because of the way time zones work: the further east you go, the later the local time is in relation to UTC.

History at your fingertips

The UK is not on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) all year.

On timeanddate.com's When you cross the International Date Line from west to east, you subtract a day, and if you cross the line from east to west, you add a day.Depending on which time zone the country follows, the time difference on either side of the line is not always 24 hours.

During Daylight Saving Time the correct time zone is British Summer Time (BST).

Last updated 26-Sep-2018.
The International Date Line functions as a “ line of demarcation ” separating two consecutive calendar dates.

The International Date Line is an imaginary line located halfway around the world at roughly 180 degrees longitude that separates one day from the next.

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

It bends through the Bering Strait to avoid placing far northeastern Russia in a different day than the rest of the country.

The international date line is not a perfectly straight line.

It corresponds along most of its length to the 180th meridian of longitude but deviates eastward through the Bering Strait to avoid dividing Siberia and then deviates westward to include the Aleutian Islands with Alaska. Countries are free to choose the date and time zone that they want to observe.The 180° meridian was selected as the International Date Line because it mostly runs through the sparsely populated Central Pacific Ocean. The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth.

This 24-hour time standard is kept using highly precise atomic clocks combined with the Earth's rotation.

This article was most recently revised and updated by

The International date line is a line between time zones that are roughly 24 hours apart.

But GMT is a time zone and UTC is a time standard. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.The International Date Line is a consequence of the worldwide use of timekeeping systems arranged so that local noon corresponds approximately to the time at which the sun crosses the local meridian of longitude (

For example, if you travel the The dateline is not defined by international law.

It describes the border from one day to the next.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is often interchanged or confused with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in …

International Date Line, also called Date Line, imaginary line extending between the North Pole and the South Pole and arbitrarily demarcating each calendar day from the next. Standard time is also known as winter time or normal time in some countries.

It was decided at the International Meridian Conference in 1884 in Washington, D.C. where 26 countries attended.Current local times around the world, including (DST) changes.

The International Date Line is located halfway around the world from the prime meridian (0° longitude) or about 180° east (or west) of Greenwich, London, UK, the reference point of time zones.It is also known as the line …