Around the World in Eighty Days · Jules Verne, 1872

How long did it take Phileas Fogg to go around the world?

79days, by London's calendar

Fogg counted eighty sunrises. His friends in London saw seventy-nine. Going east, he gained a whole day.

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For scale
The bet: London to London 80 daysFogg's diary: 2 Oct to Sat 21 Dec 80 daysLondon's calendar: 2 Oct to Fri 20 Dec 79 days

From the book

Fogg leaves the Reform Club on the evening of 2 October 1872. He has bet twenty thousand pounds that he will walk back in by 8:45 pm on Saturday 21 December: eighty days.

Going east, he meets the sun a little earlier every day, four minutes for every degree of longitude. Round 360 degrees, that adds up to exactly 24 hours. So Fogg saw the sun cross the sky eighty times, and London only seventy-nine, Verne explains at the end. Passepartout's watch had kept London time all along, but it didn't show the date.

So when Fogg gets back he thinks it is Saturday 21 December and he is five minutes too late. Next morning he thinks it is Sunday. In fact, it is Saturday. Passepartout finds out by chance while booking the vicar for the wedding, and Fogg walks into the club as the clock strikes 8:45.

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