Greenwich, Prime Meridian

[p.risboy]

Something I've always wondered about.

If I am standing just East of the prime meridian, and my friend is standing just West of it.

Is he nearly 24 hours ahead of me.

Steve.

 

[JeffAlvey]

Hi there,

I'm afraid not.
The prime meridian (zulu time) is where the measurement of time, with respect to daylight is "calibrated" from. It is designated 0 degrees longitude.

As the sun rises in the east, (say Japan), it will obviously be daylight there BEFORE it is daylight in Greenwich.
When it is daylight in Greenwich it is daylight "just to the left of the meridian and ALSO just to the right of it".
The compensation is done by the international date line.

The date line (180 degrees longitude) where the "day" changes.
(Even there it is not always at exactly 180 degrees as it is bent around certain island chains for local convenience).

I found this out once when I was in Fiji - I was due to fly out to Hawaii on the 20th (it was the 19th in Fiji) - Till I realised that it was ALREADY the 20th in Hawaii.
It was a bit of a scramble, but I did make it to the airport just in time.

Hope that helps.

 

[leefer]

Something I've always wondered about.

If I am standing just East of the prime meridian, and my friend is standing just West of it.

Is he nearly 24 hours ahead of me.

Steve.

Depends on where you bought your watch from:biggrin:

 

[p.risboy]

But the time of sunrise isn't a constant, but the time of day is(just).

So theoretically, my mate is nearly 24 hours ahead according to the time, and not the timing of the sunrise.

And Lee......I don't have a watch, so that might be the problem.:2fun::2fun:


Steve.