Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store

The International date line is represented as ____________.
A. 1000 meridian
B. 00 meridian
C. 1800 meridian
D. 900 meridian

seo-qna
Last updated date: 16th Jun 2024
Total views: 384.9k
Views today: 3.84k
Answer
VerifiedVerified
384.9k+ views
Hint: As a "line of demarcation" dividing two successive calendar dates, the International Date Line works. When we hit the dateline, we become a kind of time traveler! "Crossing west and one day later, crossing back and "reaching back in time.

Complete Answer:
The International Date Line (IDL) is an arbitrary demarcation line that stretches from the North Pole to the South Pole on Earth's surface and demarcates the transition from one calendar day to the next. It goes across the centre of the Pacific Ocean, approximately matching the longitude line of $180^\circ$ but deviating to travel around some areas and groups of islands. The IDL is approximately centred on the $180^\circ$ longitude meridian, roughly in the centre of the Pacific Ocean, and halfway from the Greenwich meridian around the globe. In certain places, the IDL follows precisely the $180^\circ$ meridian. The IDL, though, deviates east or west away from the meridian in some areas. The political and/or economic affiliations of the affected areas usually tolerate these diverse deviations.
The first divergence of the IDL from $180^\circ$ from north to south is to travel to the east of Wrangel Island and the Chukchi Peninsula, which is the easternmost portion of Russian Siberia. At a distance of 1.5 kilometres from each island, it then passes across the Bering Strait between the Diomede Islands. It then bends slightly west of $180^\circ$, passing west of the islands of St. Lawrence and St. Matthew. Between the U.S. The IDL crosses The Aleutian Islands (the westernmost being Attu Island) and the Russian-owned Commander Islands. To return to $180^\circ$, it then bends southeast again. Thus, all of Russia is to the west of the IDL, and except for the island regions of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Wake Island, all of the United States is to the east.
So, the correct answer is Option C.

Note: In terms of its designation, there is no official international status for the International Date Line and countries are free to select the dates they follow. Although the dateline normally stretches north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags over political boundaries such as the Aleutian Islands of eastern Russia and Alaska.