Editing 2854: Date Line

{{comic
| number    = 2854
| date      = November 13, 2023
| title     = Date Line
| image     = date_line_2x.png
| imagesize = 443x522px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = They estimate the rocket should be free by approximately ... uh ... well, in about two hours.
}}

==Explanation==
The {{w|International Date Line}} is a nominal line on Earth near the {{w|180th meridian|antimeridian (180°)}} that represents where adjoining territories observe a full calendar day of difference (give or take the 'normal' time of day adjustment).

It causes one of three situations where the date might change for you, the usual one being when (in your time zone) you pass from the hour of 11 pm across beyond midnight, and a second being if you travel directly between time zones at such a time (usually that being a window of just one specific hour, at night) where they are each either side of midnight. Most people don't travel at or around midnight, and just being awake as the clocks tick over is not often such a remarkable thing, other than to perhaps mark reaching a special date (significant birthdays, perhaps, or {{w|New Year's Day}}). However, travel across or between certain areas of east and west Pacific (or [[503: Terminology|vice-versa]]) is not so uncommon, yet brings with it the special need to effectively adjust your watch by a full day (plus or minus any other time to be adjusted).

The International Date Line is not a physical string,{{Citation needed}} and therefore could not be caught by a rocket. It should also be noted that the International Date Line is not straight, but extends either side of the antimeridian to avoid confusion on internal land journeys (like Russia, {{w|Chukotka Autonomous Okrug|a portion of which}} overlaps the antimeridian), similarly cutting off 'nearby' outlying island territories or adding needless complexity {{w|Tokelau#Timezone|when dealing with chosen trading partners}}. (There may also be the niche tourism-led motivation of being able to claim 'first' in experiencing the new date.) Of course, these very bends would give a physical International Date Line quite a bit of slack that a rocket could pull up (as depicted in the comic).

Based on what is shown in the comic, the rocket could have been launched by the Russians (e.g. from the {{w|Vostochny Cosmodrome}}), but the caption implies that the American space agency is the one expecting to resolve the issue (whoever's original error it was), and all orbital flights are pretty much guaranteed to cross (over) the dateline at some point in the initial track. Of course, the odds of a rocket getting stuck on such a line (if it existed) would be incredibly slim. Additionally, striking such an object wouldn’t trap the rocket. Instead, the rocket (and likely the line) would undergo what many [[:Category: Kerbal Space Program|KSP]] users have encountered: Rapid Unplanned Disassembly.

The caption suggests that this event has messed up the normal regulation of time, and is somehow unsafe to 'use' as a result, so people should pause their usage of it by stopping their clocks and calendars. Also, because time is not behaving normally, ‘they’ can’t give a time for when it will be fixed. If, say, it was 8:00 when the rocket got snagged, then it is 8:00 until they fix it. This means that no matter how much time should have passed, until they fix it, it will remain 8:00. In reality, even if a physical dateline did exist, and if disturbing it were to mess up our ability to measure time, synchronize clocks, and so on, time itself would continue to flow regardless, and pausing one's clock would have no effect on this. Indeed, if time stopped operating, it's not entirely clear what an amount of time that 'should have passed' would even mean, or if we would be able to perceive that anything was wrong. Or, we could use more traditional ways of keeping the time that doesn't need the International Date Line, like {{w|Water Clock}}s or {{w|Sundial}}s until it's fixed.

More worryingly, yet oddly not mentioned by the announcement, is that the International Date Line and Greenwich Meridian appear to be a single continuous physical line, and consequently, the stretching of the former is pulling in the latter, causing significant geological disruption along that line, which would result in danger to life and property and infrastructure damage affecting many millions of people living close to it, and probably tsunamis that could threaten many more further afield. 

The title text states that the estimated time the rocket should be free is "about two hours,” but the speaker/writer hesitates when about to give an estimated time stamp, as the time does not advance on clocks, assuming the instructions are followed. Instead, a more generic time must be given, though there still remains the issue of how to properly judge the relative passing of time.

==Transcript==

:[An image of the Earth, but looking like a model globe, with several latitude and meridian lines explicitly visible. One of the meridian lines — evidently the International Date Line — is being pulled up away from the Earth's surface by a rocket in flight. This has made the line very tight, such that its continuation on the opposite side (the Prime Meridian) is cutting into the planet's surface.]
:
:[Caption below the panel:]
:Timekeeping announcement: A rocket accidentally became snagged on the International Date Line during launch. Please pause all clocks and calendars until NASA is able to free it and safely resume the normal flow of time.

==Trivia==
* '''This trivia section was created by a BOT'''
* The [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/date_line.png standard size] image was uploaded with a resolution/size larger than the supposed 2x version.
* This may have been an error.
* The about two hours might reference the orbital time of LEO satellites

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Time]]
[[Category:Space]]
[[Category:Calendar]]