Confuzzlement
Jul. 13th, 2006 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ellarienI must admit, this whole dateline thing is confuzzling.
As far as I can make out, I get on a plane early tomorrow afternoon and fly west for twelve hours, chasing the sun and -- I think -- never actually seeing it set. After this, it will be late Saturday afternoon in Beijing. My watch says 2am on Saturday; I set it forward fifteen hours, bringing it to 5pm Saturday. (Alternatively, I could set it back nine hours, to 5pm Friday, as I would normally expect to do when flying West, but then I'd have to move it forward a day.)
On the way back, I leave Beijing in the early afternoon and fly east into (and out of) the night for eight hours, a procedure that if I were going from Arizona to Europe would put me in the morning of the following day on arrival, (albeit after a very short night.) Because of the dateline, though, it will actually be morning of the same day, and I'll have to set my watch back a day after setting it forward 9 hours.)
That's not even as bad as it gets for people who are flying to Australia instead, presumably. Still, it's confusing. I've done enough shuttling back and forth over the Atlantic to take it for granted that flying east means losing a night and flying west means getting those lost hours back, crammed into an unbearably long day.
As far as I can make out, I get on a plane early tomorrow afternoon and fly west for twelve hours, chasing the sun and -- I think -- never actually seeing it set. After this, it will be late Saturday afternoon in Beijing. My watch says 2am on Saturday; I set it forward fifteen hours, bringing it to 5pm Saturday. (Alternatively, I could set it back nine hours, to 5pm Friday, as I would normally expect to do when flying West, but then I'd have to move it forward a day.)
On the way back, I leave Beijing in the early afternoon and fly east into (and out of) the night for eight hours, a procedure that if I were going from Arizona to Europe would put me in the morning of the following day on arrival, (albeit after a very short night.) Because of the dateline, though, it will actually be morning of the same day, and I'll have to set my watch back a day after setting it forward 9 hours.)
That's not even as bad as it gets for people who are flying to Australia instead, presumably. Still, it's confusing. I've done enough shuttling back and forth over the Atlantic to take it for granted that flying east means losing a night and flying west means getting those lost hours back, crammed into an unbearably long day.