Douglas BGngnoss, age 12, of Boise, Idaho, for his question:
Why does the International Date Line curve?
Just suppose that the International Date Line ran through the beautiful city of Boise, Idaho. Half of Capital Boulevard would be having Monday while the other half would be still enjoying Sunday. People, would stop across a line in the road from one day to the next. Imagine the confusion about schooldays and holidays. The people of Boise would surely ask to have the Date Line moved to some wide open space where the changeover from one day to the next was more convenient.
The real Date Line, of course, runs down the wide open spaces of the Pacific Ocean. But over there are clusters of inhabited islands. And naturally, the people living on a group of islands wish to share the same date and the same day of the week. So, for their convenience, the Date Line curves this way and that on its trip from the north pole to the south pole.
Every new day on the calendar is born at the Date Line. The new day moves westward following the old day clear around the world. It reaches Portland, Maine, several hours before it reaches Boise, Idaho. The East Coast celebrates the New Year several hours before the West Coast toots its jolly horns and blows its merry whistles each day takes 24 hours to march around the world. There is always some place on the globe where it is midnight and a new day is being born. Meantime, the International Date Line always divides one calendar day from the next.
The Date Line roughly follows the 180th meridian from pole to pole. Between Alaska and Siberia it jags westward from the meridian. This avoids dividing the Aleutian Islands and puts them all on the American side of the Date Line. South of the Aleutians, the Date Line returns to the 180th meridian. It follows this line of longitude faithfully to below the equator. This puts the island and the western silo, Midway and the Hawaiian Islands on the eastern side of the calendar line.
The islands off Australia sprawl out into the Pacific as far cast as the Fijis. These little isles, as New Zealand, wish to be in the same date zone as the big island continent of Australian rind. The Date Line obliges through South of the equator. It goes eastward, almost but not quite as far east as Samoa. This puts Pago Pago, an American hold harbor, in the same date zone as Uncle Sam.
The Date Line remains oust of the 180th meridian for a long way through the south Pacific. By so doing it leaves New Zealand and the Fiji Islands in the western date zone and with the same calendar day as Australia. South of this curve it returns to the 180th meridian and follows it faithfully right down to the icy South Pole.