GED and Happy New Year!
Hello, everyone looking for a GED in the New Year! This is a great time to get started studying for your GED test, when everyone’s making resolutions to make this the best year. The thing is, you’ve got to stick to your resolution. Serious here for a moment… getting your GED diploma is the first step to big improvements. And what’s a better time for that than New Year’s?
So, I thought… what kind of GED social studies thing can go with New Year’s? It’s about people, right? Celebrating the new year? So, I figured, there’s people all over the world celebrating this one moment in time… you know how the new year moves around the world, in different time zones. That’s the kind of thing that might really be on the GED test.
I started looking into it, and guess what? There’s a place in Fiji that’s exactly opposite Greenwich, England. Does that mean anything to you? Well, here’s a GED fact: Greenwich is where all time is measured from. In 1884, all the countries in the world got together for a conference so they could all measure time the same way. It’s called the International Meridian Conference, and here’s a link about it: http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/conference.htm
Well, 180 degrees around the Earth from Greenwich… that’s halfway around a circle, for everyone studying for GED math… is the International Date Line. On either side of the date line, it’s different days. Weird, huh?
The official International Date Line skips around so it doesn’t cross any land (since everyone’d be trying to extend their weekend by jumping over the International Date Line…) But the 180 degree mark passes right through an island in Fiji. So, it’s one day on one side and the next on the other side.
Take a look at these pictures: http://www.confluence.org/photo.php?visitid=6783&pic=ALL
And here’s a story about visiting the 180 degree longitude (that’s how east and west are measured…in longitude) in Fiji:
http://www.confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=6783
Happy New Year! And happy GED! Next time, I’ll come up with a GED practice question about the International Date Line.
To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.
