Sep 04
A riddle
Cats: Canada, odd things|A child was born at 2 am on 5 September 1996 in Britain.
But at the moment of birth, the time was actually 10 pm on 4 September 1996 in Atlantic Canada which is four time zones behind.
The child now lives in Atlantic Canada.
So, is the child’s real (ie not official) birthday 4 Sept or 5 Sept?
September 4th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
My head’s spinning thinking about this one. My vote is for September 5, because I believe you have to go with the date of birth, no matter where the child was born or what time zone he/she lived in at the time. He/she was born on the 5th? That’s the child’s birthday.
Just call me “wise.” Or Solomon-a
September 4th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
September 5th! Otherwise, that messes up my birthdate too. And well, that just can’t be.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
I vote for the 5th too but now I have a headache.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:44 am
The real birthday, I think, is whatever the date was in the place where the child was born.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:13 am
LOL at your linear thinking. The child represents a plane in the space / time continuum.
Where ever you intersect the plane represents the whole life in alternate dimensions, so yeah…the 4th.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Jacy, Chelene, Zed, Deepti, the child in question agrees with you. Today is her birthday, even if it is the first day of school.
Dick, brilliant. I’m with you. The b’day is really on the 4th, even though the others are technically correct – for practical reasons it has to be recorded on the 5th.
I’m now listening to the talking book lectures you sent on Relativity and Quantum physics. I’ve done Aristotle, Galileo, Newton & Maxwell and am about to leap into Einstein’s Special Relativity which, I think, is mind-blowingly interesting and more accessible than General Relativity, at least for amateurs like me.
September 5th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Hows about the birthday starts at 00:01 on the 4th and finishes at 23:59 on the 5th? If you make it the official birthday I’m sure she will thank you in years to come ie the teenage ones! Of course like the queen over here she could just have two birthdays. Again I reckon she will like it more than your pocket! And on the same principles if the longitude 000°00’000 is at Greenwich, UK making GMT the standard time of the world, then surely wherever you are in the world you would celebrate new years when we do in the UK!
September 5th, 2007 at 11:48 am
If you don’t celebrate New Year’s when Britain is (i.e. 4 hours early), then logically the birthday shouldn’t be celebrated on the 4th?
September 5th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
My god, that makes my brain hurt – who knows, but I do know that it was a half hour later in Newfoundland…
September 5th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I like that Ro, lateral thinking.
Deepti, I’m more interested in the metaphysical aspect of the question. You are correct to say it should be celebrated on the 5th and also to say that the birth cert. should be stamped with the 5th, but what interests me is the moment she was born and what that means to her here and now, in a different time zone.
And yes TB the Newfy thesis sort of captures it.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:39 am
Ah, metaphysical thinking. It hurts my brain…
September 7th, 2007 at 4:15 am
The child must be given up immediately for adoption and you have to try again.
September 7th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Dale, ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!