In Defense of the Faith

Lost Time

Speaking to the question of a proposed thirteen-month calendar, in the House of Representatives, June 11, 1929, Mr. Sol Bloom, a member from New York City, said this concerning the possibility of losing or gaining time in travel: DOF 204.2

“When we speak of losing or gaining a day in travel, we are really giving a new definition of the word. We are defining days, not in terms of the journey of the earth on its axis, but rather in terms of the journey of human beings around the earth, which is quite a different thing. The trouble, of course, grows out of the fact that the traveler moves from the given point at which he began to measure the day. If days be defined in terms of man’s journey around the earth, without making allowance for his changing point of measurement, then the most unbelievable possibilities arise. DOF 204.3

“Let us imagine an airplane capable of travelling a thousand miles an hour. A man starts westward in such a plane at noon Sunday. The sun is always overhead, because he travels westward at the same rate as the sun. Twenty-four hours later that is, on Monday noon, he reaches again the spot whence he started, and still the sun shines overhead. When he alights from his machine, would he be correct in declaring that it was still Sunday noon?” DOF 205.1