Does anyone know why Christmas Island is 14 hrs ahead of us time wise ?

Im confused, how can they be more than 12 hours ahead……….its making my head hurt.

Can anyone explain it in simple terms.

The earth takes 24 hours to spin on its axis so somehwere can be more than 12 hours ahead as technically you are a day behind as there is an arbitary start point for the DAY. GMT – greenwhich mean time is usually the reference point for time so it would normally say hours behind/ahead of this point for time but this ignores the day.
http://www.worldtimezone.com/index24.php

Yes, but they clearly wouldn't be simple enough for you mate ! Why is this difficult ? A hangover from British Imperialism ??

You could cross the date line in a row boat and be 24 hours earlier than you were 5 minutes ago. Just don't try and phone yourself up – reference the Inception thread last week.

I suppose they had a choice of being 10hours behind or 14 hours ahead and choose the later ?

Think of it as a unit of measurement, not a tangible thing.

Thursday 05 August 2010 doesn't exist and more than 12 gallons or 112m exists.

I suppose they had a choice of being 10hours behind or 14 hours ahead and choose the later

I think it was so that tourists would go there and be 'first' to see in a new year/century/millenia etc

some kind of "christmas island winter time"?

GMT+1, plus 12 hours, plus their being an hour behind = 14?

Thursday 05 August 2010 doesn't exist

But today's my birthday. Does that mean I don't exist either? Am I in the Matrix or just a figment of my own imagination? Today was supposed to be a happy day but now I am not sure…
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Best drink lots of beer to cheer myself up. 8)

In some cases it's done to be the 'first' to see in each new year. I believe that some islands even changed timezone in the run up to Dec 1999 to be the 'first' to see 2000.

whats even more strange is the rock the heads are made out of is not found anywhere near the island!

whats even more strange is the rock the heads are made out of is not found anywhere near the island!

Even stranger than that, is that those heads are on a completely different island, thousands of miles away!!

LOL!

I flew back from NZ on my birthday once, via USA so crossing the dateline, or maybe it was the other way anyways I had two birthdays. The waitresses just kept bringing me drinks it was awesome. not sure if that makes me a year older.

Or perhaps it was all just a dream I had in the shower.

Time doesn't exist. It's merely a measurement between two points in history.

A good few years ago me and a mate worked out, whilst on Acid, that Time and Light are in fact the same thing. But it's too complicated to explain here.

OMG how low are the standards in British schools – are we talking about Christmas Island or Easter Island ? This is important as they are on either side of the date line, or both I guess depending on which way you look at it.

And it's more PC to call it Rapa Nui these days.

Not true 95 % of statues are made from a single site in a volcano and a lot still remain in the quarry site al lon the island.

A good few years ago me and a mate worked out, whilst on Acid, that Time and Light are in fact the same thing. But it's too complicated to explain here.

I understand. Sort of.

What we see, we see at the speed of light travelling off it. So a star in a distant galaxy may now be gone, but we can still see it as the light is still moving towards us

So, if you look at a clock, what you are actually seeing is a minutely delayed image of the clock and the time on it. Move away from the clock backwards and the speed the light can catch up with you slows, until, when moving backwards at the speed of light, the clock appears stationary, in effect stopping time. Go faster and time should appear to go backwards.

Something like that??

(My head hurts now)

Yeah, sort of, but don't dwell on it whatever you do, or it could send you insane.

It's too much for the 'unenhanced' Human mind to contemplate.

Time is an illusion…
…lunchtime doubly so.

And for bonus points it's a Thursday.

Yes exactly Mr Grey – Douglas Adams is the best source material for this kind of thing…

12 hours … hmmm!

A more difficult one would be to explain how Ashington is still in the 1980's?

LOL – I have no knowledge of this place 'Ashington' but the humour still works for me.
😆

Trimix – Member
Im confused, how can they be more than 12 hours ahead……….its making my head hurt.
Can anyone explain it in simple terms.

Smaller lighter island, therefore faster…

what tyres for christmas?

Some places on earth can be 23 hours ahead of other places, but I think what the OP is asking is why can they be 14 hours ahead of US here in GMT. Which is a fair question. I shall google it now.

Right, I'm back from Google. Christmas island is apparently only 7 hours ahead of us. So thread FAIL unfortunately.

Duck has replaced chicken as the Christmas roast in my house (turkey is far too bloody big and an American idea anyway). Duck is like a small goose, which is more traditional. Very tasty, and from one duck you can have roast duck, crispy duck with pancakes, duck soup and the amount of fat collected will do for a fair bit of cooking. You can, if you're careful, separate the jelly and perhaps have it with duck liver pate. Very versatile and exceedingly tasty.

I'm afraid this thread has suddenly gone far too random for me.

Christmas island is apparently only 7 hours ahead of us.

But Christmas Island is still about about 4 – 5 months ahead of Easter Island, although sometimes it looks like Easter Island is catching up

The church authorities still refuse to fix the position of Easter Island. So that must mean its timezone varies, surely?

Actually in a tenuous link, we have lobster for starter, which is a bit like crab. Millions of red crabs swarm all over Christmas Island during their breeding season. They are so determined in their quest, that they wil go over, under and through anything. I'm not sure of their edibility.

I believe it's a Christmas Island red crab that features on the cover of the Prodigy album, 'Fat of the Land'.

'Ave it Johnny my son!

I think a Christmas Island red crab's favourite song might be 'Atmosphere' by the Joy Division. Although they may also enjoy other songs, perhaps Jolene by Dolly Parton, for example.

There they go the little bastards!

Clicky piccy for educational video.

And it's more PC to call it Rapa Nui these days.

The thread is about Christmas Island though; Rapa Nui is Easter Island.

And Christmas Island is nowhere near the dateline being west of Australia & in time zone UTC+7; Easter Island is in UTC-6 (which is the same time zone as some of Ontario, the central USA & eastern Mexico)

Andy

A more difficult one would be to explain how Ashington is still in the 1980's?

PMSL! So true.

There are 2 Christmas Islands. On in the Indian ocean which is an overseas territory of Australia, and one island in the Pacific, which used to be called Christmas Island, although is now called Kirimati, and is part of Kiribati.

I'm glad none of you buggers are Travel Agents.

Neither of these places is anywhere near Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

[Edit] – as gwaelod said above…[/edit]

Late to the thread (or am I early?) but I think the OP was referring to an island called Kiritimati in the Republic of Kiribati that's also known as Christmas Island – Kiribati is a republic made up of the Gilbert, Line and Phoenix island groups but these spread across the original position of the date line so it'd be very confusing to have different days and times on the different islands, hence the people of Kiribati decided to keep all their islands on the same date and shifted the date line to the East, meaning that the easternmost Line Island group is at GMT +14.

In other dateline confusion, the nearby(ish)Marshall Islands are generally at GMT+12, but Kwajalein Atoll (in the Marshalls) is a US base & the lagoon there was used as the target for a lot of missile/weapons tests where things were fired at them from the US. As a result Kwajalein decided to opt out of the dateline thing and keep themselves on the same date as W coast USA to avoid any unpleasantness arising from missiles being fired one day and arriving on another. Think they've stopped those shenanigins now and are on the same day as the rest of the Marhsalls, but if you think normal US customs & immigration is a PITA you want to try changing planes at Kwaj…

Time doesn't exist. It's merely a measurement between two points in history.

I read that one of the ways that you can directly 'observe' time, or at least measure its directionality, is via entropy; the universe as a system is moving from a lower to a higher state of entropy and this is effectively indicative of the passing of time.

Hmmm, maybe I've actually just agreed with the point made above…..

Geetee – except that locally, entropy can go either way. It's just the TOTAL amount of entropy that is increasing.

Or is it decreasing?

Christmas Island, Easter Island; what about Ramadan Island? Chanukah Island? Diwali Island? Eh? Bloody racist.

But if we're going to be PC, then maybe we should just have Bank Holiday Monday Island.