The wrong year in Dial of Destiny?

Question

Jürgen Voller uses the Antikythera in the Heinkel 111, but before going through the time fissure Indiana Jones spouts off that Archimedes did not take into account continental drift.

If the continents are moving at an average of 1.5 cm per year why would that matter if they are transported to a similar location in time considering difference in time periods from the current to the one that Voller wants to travel to? The distance wrong would be negligible over the period of time they are traveling back to.

So then how did Voller, as a professor of mathematics / physics get the wrong time they were traveling to, as they were only off by a couple thousand years approximately?

Answer 1

Indy’s explanation turns out to be wrong:

He realizes later, and Archimedes confirms, that the Antikythera is designed to always return to the same time and place — it is really a “message in a bottle” designed to bring aid to break the siege.

As for why Indy would say that in the first place, in universe, he’s probably just spitballing. In terms of screenwriting, it’s similar to “Belloq’s staff is too long” in Raiders or “Jehova is spelled with an I” in Last Crusade — Indy has some insight that gives him an advantage over the villain and propels the plot to the next complication. It does not matter if it really makes sense; it’s a sort of narrative sleight of hand.

Answer 2

Because the movie does not go into detail about how the Antikythera works, it’s unclear. However the gist of it is that a small variable that was unaccounted for has a large effect on the traveler’s destination, so it must have a cumulative effect.

As an example, if you are off course by a small number of degrees, after a few hours or travel you will be well off target.