Abstract
UNDER this heading, in your number for Nov. 28, a letter signed “James Pearson” ends thus:—“The query then is—in what part of the globe and in what meridian does October 20 end and October 21 begin?” As well ask where a circle eds and where it begins. See an article at the end of Bayle's Dictionary, entitled, in the second Rotterdam edition, 1702, “Dissertation sur le jour,” vol. iii. p. 3118; in the London edition, 1741, “Dissertation concerning the Space of Time called Day,” vol. x. p. 365. The difficulty, as Bayle shows, is in the nature of things. Let an equatorial railroad go round the world in twenty-four hours, with a station at every 45th meridian. At noon of October 20, Mr. West takes “a return ticket” westward; Mr. East takes one eastward. Both reckon by solar time. At every station Mr. West finds it noon, and on his return home reckons noon October 20; but the station-master reckons noon October 21. Mr. East at 45° sees the sun set at 6 o'clock. At 90° he finds midnight; at 135° the sun rises at 6 o'clock on October 21; at 180° it is noon. Here the two passengers pass each other, Mr. West reckoning it to be noon of October 20, Mr. East noon of October 21. At 135° W., Mr. East sees the sun set) at 90° he finds midnight; at 45° the sun rises at 6 o'clock on October 22. On his return home Mr. East reckons it to be noon of October 22. Here then are three different reckonings, and practically the keeping of Sunday, Christmas Day, &c., on different days in different countries exists at this instant and must exist for ever. Practically also those who sail eastward round the world get one more dinner than those who stay at home. Those who sail westward round the world get one dinner less than those who stay at home, and two dinners less than those who sail eastward, when both voyages are completed.
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GREENWOOD, G. The Greenwich Date. Nature 7, 105 (1872). https://doi.org/10.1038/007105a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/007105a0
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