On a previous blog I asked my grandchildren 6 questions about crossing the international date line. Here are the questions:

1. Are Nana and Papa now one day younger ?
2. If your birthday was 2/3 do you skip a year and not get an older ?
3. Do we ever gain the day back when go around the world and end back in Florida ?  
4. Will we always be a day off when we return ?  Why Not ?
5. Who proposed the concept of time zones and an international date line ?
6. Why isn’t the international date line straight ?

I have had two answer so far. I thought I would share their answers with you. The first is from my 14 year old grandaughter Joanna.

Hi, Papa and Nana! This is Joanna, answering the challenge for today. An international date line is a line extending between the north and south poles and you will skip forward a day or go back a day when you cross it, depending if you go east or west over it. 

1. I think you are technically not a day younger because when you come back you still would have been gone for the same amount of time as if you didn’t cross it. 
2. I think if your birthday was on 2/3, then you would still celebrate your birthday even if you don’t count it, because it is just like having a birthday on February 29. Simon has a friend who is “3” but has really lived for 11 years. 
3. Technaily no.
4. You won’t be a day off when you come back because your phones will change, just like they change when you cross time zones. Also, it would be very inconvenient to come a day late to everything. 
5. Sir Sanford Flemming originally proposed it.
6. Because it needs to go around country borders so that it is not a different date in the same country (because that would just be confusing).

The second answer is from my grandson Simon who is 12 years old.

This is Simon😎
First three are NO
4 is no, but if you went the other way would
The international meridian conference in 1887, led by Chester a arthur
some countries didn’t want to have two different days

I am sure as the rest of our grandchildren get older they will like to work on these kinds of problems. It is also interesting to note the answers and how much they differ in how they answer the same questions.

The way I look at it is we have 24 days with 25 hours in each day so we have to lose a day in order be at the same time returning to Fort Lauderdale where we started. So technically we did lose a day and we just were able to sleep a little longer for 24 days. This is so much better than going East and losing an hour each day for 24 days.