Table of Contents
Why is the International Date Line not a straight line like the 180 degree meridian?
The international date is not a straight line but a zigzag line as it enables to avoid crossing any land mass. Passing through a land mass would mean that the land mass would have two dates at the same time, which would be very inconvenient. tHIS is why idl is not a straight line like the 180 meridian.
Why is IDL not a straight line?
The International Date Line (IDL) passes through the Pacific Ocean. It is an imaginary line, like longitudes and latitudes. To avoid any confusion of date, this line is drawn through where the sea lies and not land. Hence, the IDL is drawn in a zig-zag manner.
Why is the International Date Line?
Drawn up in 1884 The 180° meridian was selected as the basis for the International Date Line because it mostly runs through the sparsely populated Central Pacific Ocean. This was decided at the International Meridian Conference in 1884 in Washington, D.C.
Is international date line straight?
It is halfway around the world from the prime meridian (0° longitude), the reference point of time zones, which runs through Greenwich, UK. The date line runs from the North Pole to the South Pole and marks the Western and Eastern Hemisphere divide. It is not straight but curves around landmasses and national borders.
Where does a day start on Earth?
Each day on Earth begins at midnight in Greenwich, England, where the prime meridian is located.
What is the 180 degree meridian?
The 180th meridian or antimeridian is the meridian 180° both east and west of the Prime Meridian, with which it forms a great circle dividing the earth into the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. It is common to both east longitude and west longitude.
What is the main purpose of 180 degree meridian?
The prime meridian separates the eastern hemisphere from the western hemisphere. Halfway around the world, at 180 degrees longitude, is the International Date Line. The prime meridian is the line of 0 longitude, the starting point for measuring distance both east and west around the Earth.
What is the International Date Line (IDL)?
The International Date Line (IDL) takes into account the political/territorial affinity of the nearby land areas, so that there will be the same date over the entire territory of a country, as seen in the picture below.
Why is the International Date Line not a straight line?
If it was a straight line passing evenly through the continents, oceans and islands it would have resulted in the same places lying on both the sides of the meridian having different times. Thus the line was constructed in such a way that the parts of the same region were included in the same time zone. Thus the IDL was not a straight line.
What is the IDL of the Earth?
The IDL which denotes a location on Earth where a new calendar day begins is generally aligned with the 180 deg. meridian that runs from pole to pole through the Pacific Ocean.