Silly question

[Paz]

 I saw a show on Antarctica recently and it made me wonder something:

 Let's say you decide to gather up the family and head to the south pole for a picnic, you are exactly at the south pole...what time is it??  ???
Wouldn't you be in every time zone in the world at the same time??
Or does the south pole have its own time zone??
Does the south pole change their clocks for daylight savings time??

 Kind of silly I know, but it has really got me wondering how the heck you would tell time at the South pole.

[ozzy72]

I suppose you would just have to choose which time zone you wanted to be in, and take it from there.

Technically, if you took one step (or less) in any direction, you would be on a particular line of longitude, then it would take 24hrs 1.5 mins (approx) to get back round to the same point in space, relative to the Earth's rotation.

But as you say, as far as our 'two dimensional' method of time calculation goes, yes, you would not be 'turning' round an axis of the Earth, you would be 'spinning' in one spot.

So to tell the time you could just put a spot on the ground, off the point of the Pole, as your chosen time zone, and use that.

[Scottler]

Hmm....how to phrase this without getting zapped by the mods...

Paz, you watch a lot of Cheech and Chong, don't you?  LOL

[ozzy72]

Another good one to try is standing ON the International Date Line, then skip from one side to the other yelling 'Monday! Tuesday! Monday!' etc.
I did this once to annoy a friend of mine, he thumped me after about 30 seconds! Some people really DON'T have a sense of humour Or maybe they don't like irritating plonkers.......
In answer to your question Paz, the Poles have a summer and a winter, time is relative there, as the sun is up for six months and wanders around the sky, then its dark for six months. So no idea.... But at a guess I'd say it'd be logical for everyone to use GMT.

Ozzy

[Scottler]

Better yet:

Suck in the gut, pull back your shoulders, inflate your chest, and proudly declare yourself Secretary of Antarctic Time, and make an announcement that the current time (at the beep) will be ____.  You're the boss, you make whatever time you want.

Although, come to think of it, if you were actually able to get on with an expedition to Antarctica, you'd probably already know how things work there, wouldn't you?

Here's an addendum to said silly question.  If you're standing on the southpole, why isn't everything a hike uphill?  And vice versa on the north pole.

Crap, that reminds me.  I've gotta return "Up In Smoke" to the video store today.

[Wing Nut]

Try this out...   I'm still trying to figure it out.

http://www.mindspring.com/~gwil/taq.html

or maybe this one...

http://www.gsp.com/support/virtual/admi ... ntarctica/

[Paz]

you would be 'spinning' in one spot.

 Would you get dizzy after a while?

Paz, you watch a lot of Cheech and Chong, don't you?  LOL

 Not anymore, this was not a drug induced ponderance.

try standing ON the International Date Line, then skip from one side to the other yelling 'Monday! Tuesday! Monday!' etc.

 Yeah, that would be pretty F'd up.

If you're standing on the southpole, why isn't everything a hike uphill?

 I was wondering something similar to that also, and this stuff too: If you are standing at the bottom of the world, do you know you're upside-down? Do you get a head rush every time you lay down?

 Man, could there be a more messed up place to hang out?
The north pole wouldn't seem as weird, because you're on top of the world, that just doesn't hit me as being as strange as being at the very bottom of the world.

Try this out...   I'm still trying to figure it out.

http://www.mindspring.com/~gwil/taq.html

or maybe this one...

http://www.gsp.com/support/virtual/admi ... ntarctica/

 Did you notice...no time zone for the south pole?
They were probably all standing around scratching their heads going  "Who's ever gonna give a crap what time it is at the south pole anyway?" and then went off for tea and bisquits.

[Iroquois]

I was wondering something similar to that also, and this stuff too: If you are standing at the bottom of the world, do you know you're upside-down? Do you get a head rush every time you lay down?

Technically you are rightside-up. Up and down are only a state of mind made to simplify things. Earth is in space and in space there is no up or down. The only reason that we can differ the two here on Earth is due to our own gravity which is pulling us towards the center of the planet. No matter where you are, up is still up and down is still down.

If I may add another thing. The South Pole hasn't always been the South Pole. Several times in the history of the planet, the magnetic poles have reversed. We are currently entering another reversal stage. I guess Australia will become known as the "Land Up Up Top" and Canada will be known as the "Great White South". Of course this process is very slow. Another interesting thing about this phenomenon is during the process, North and South neutralize each other. This means that for a short time, Earth will have no magnetic field. Would be neat to watch birds flying in circles.

[Paz]

Technically you are rightside-up. Up and down are only a state of mind made to simplify things. Earth is in space and in space there is no up or down.

 Aaaaw yeah, hey, at least that makes sense.

[Professor Brensec]

This is my last post to visit tonight with answers (that were in my email box).
So I can take some time and get real technical...................and stupid.  ;D

If your at the South Pole, don't worry about 'everything being up hill'. Worry about falling off.....err......up...er  ;)

As for 'wouldn't you get dizzy eventually'. Well, the Earth spins at approx. 1000 mph at the surface (relative to it's point in space) at the equator.
But as you go North or South, that speed decrease as the circumference of the 'line of latitude' that you are on does.
Until you reach a point say.......1 foot from the Pole. then, of course, it would take 24 hrs to do the circle with the 1 foot radius (2 ft diameter).
That's pretty slow. I don't think you'd get dizzy!  ;D    (I enjoyed that! )

As for Ozzy's 'now it's today, now it's yesterday' stuff.  ;D
Kind of reminiscent of a famous 'stupid person' isn't it?.............."light goes on, light goes off........"  or   "bed goes up, bed goes down, bed goes up......"

Not that I mean anything by this last statement, at all.  :D

[Polynomial]

In physics we get like this about light because people say that it is a particle and a wave at the same time.  A photon is a particle that carries light has no mass but has momentum and is affected by gravity??????? go figure. . . . . But light exerts no force so it doesnt have a mass????????

[Smoke2much]

And the very act of observation alters that which is being observed...

Will

[Polynomial]

And the very act of observation alters that which is being observed...

Will

That is awfully deep . . .

[Smoke2much]

You started us on the quantum physics, I just joined in

Will

[Polynomial]

Qantam is really one of the easiest branches of physics, once you get ur head around half the concepts.  ;D