Why the date line is pretty arbitrary

Residents wading through water during a high tide to reach their homes in the village of Abarao, a town on the island of South Tarawa in Kiribati. — ©2024 The New York Times Company

TAYLOR Swift flies to Las Vegas from Japan and gains several hours. Hong Kong’s stock market closes as London’s opens. A clock on a remote Pacific island strikes midnight 24 hours early on a politician’s order.

None of those times are empirical scientific facts. Humans have just agreed to observe time zones, a concept promoted by railroad companies in the 19th century.