• Question: if you were to cross the international date on 17th june and you were 13 and it was your birthday the next day and you turned 14. and then you crossed back over would would you be 13 again and turning 14?

    Asked by claremcglone to Amy, Drew, Julia, Kimberley, Sara on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Clare – If you were standing on a boat right on the dateline, you could switch back and forth between 17th and 18th June by stepping over the line. On one side it would be the day before your birthday, and on the other side it would be your birthday. None of that would cahnge how long you had been alive for, though. It shows that birthdays are kind of arbitrary – a better count would be to take a sample of radio-active rock when you were born, and measure how much of it had decayed to a new isotope.

    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      yeah it would depend which side of the line you were on whether or not it was your birthday Clare! These things are pretty arbitrary though! You could just start a stopwatch when you were born and that would tell you how long you had been alive for…assuming the batteries didn’t run out. I mean technically is the day you come out of your mum the day you became alive? what about the day before? you could have survived then if someone had caesarian sectioned you out of her womb! 🙂

    • Photo: Julia Griffen

      Julia Griffen answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Time is relative to the individual… It boggles me to be honest…

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hey claremcglone! This sounds fun – I’d like to test it out!!! Brings new meaning to turning back the clock doesn’t it? At least it gives you the chance to celebrate your birthday twice!

      Although as Drew says it is pretty arbitrary, you do have a fixed age no matter what side of the line you are on. The radio-rock idea is cool to keep track, but you’d have to be careful! The rock would have to travel with you to track your real age. Otherwise it might be tracking someone else’s time! Maybe put it in a radiation sealed box and carry it along …

      What always boggles my mind is when I receive emails from the future!! Well ok, not really they are just sent from my friend in Japan. But, they are marked a date ahead of me. Pretty wild!

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