Something unusual about our planet

[technossomy]

A plane crosses the dateline exactly at midnight . One half of the plane is a full day ahead of the other half.
A plane crosses one of the poles. One half of the plane is half a day ahead of the other half.

[Vergil83]

That isn't the Earth's problem, it is ours for having a system of "exact" times/dates.

[carlosponti]

thats nothing at 12:01 on new years that minute advanced us a whole year! :P

[techieMoe]

I'm in support of the idea of time zones. It helps us to know that 10pm in the US is the same 10pm in Bangladesh (meaning it's evening, people are probably asleep, that sort of thing). Imagine if everyone had the exact same time all around the world and you had to look up whether the country you're calling was in day or night at 4am.

What I *don't* understand is my country's blind adherence to Daylight Saving Time. Our president recently modified it, which did absolutely nothing useful other than screw up our electronics that were made to recognize a different start time.

But I'll get off my soapbox, because in my country the topic of DST is not a scientific or even a rational one; it's politics. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a topic best discussed elsewhere.

[bunty82]

what is the question?
Is he asking about time zone or half day or half night.

[oz]

Something that truly is odd in my opinion is that our moon always rotates on its axis at just the right speed so that the other side of the moon is never visible to us from earth.

[Roxoff]

Something that truly is odd in my opinion is that our moon always rotates on its axis at just the right speed so that the other side of the moon is never visible to us from earth.

And although it's much smaller than our planet, it orbits just far enough away that it appears the same size as the sun when observed from the earth surface.

[minthaka]

And the Moon generates the Earth's magnetic field, so probably there would be no life on the Earth without it.

[Vergil83]

And the Moon generates the Earth's magnetic field, so probably there would be no life on the Earth without it.

Um, no it doesn't.

[minthaka]

Um, no it doesn't.

Yes, it does. By its gravity it moves the melted materia around the core of the planet, and since it behaves as metal, it generates electromagnetic field.