Globe Rambler

I don’t know about you but when I was a kid, my friends and I, were sure that if we could dig a hole through Earth we would reach China…Crazy isn’t it? Well, not quite. Let’s imagine for the sake of argument that one could really drill a hole through Earth’s center. Where would he end up?

For this question we turn to geography. An antipodal point is the region of Earth that is diametrically opposite from the point of reference. What does it actually mean: if you are standing in Times Square for example, in order to find the antipodes of that location, you should draw a line that goes straight to the Earth’s center, and when the line hits ground surface…that’s it!

So what were my chances to reach China and visit sites like “The Great Wall”? Zero. In fact, having a starting point in the northern hemisphere makes possible reaching land only in the southern one. Not only that I’ll be far away from China but also chances of reaching any country are slim as the southern hemisphere has more water and less land than the northern one. In the photo beneath, you can see a representation of Earth’s antipodal points. The regions where pink overlaps blue are land antipodes. As you can see, if one lives in the U.S, his antipodes are in the middle of the ocean.

Click to enlarge

The only regions from which an American could reach land on the other side of the world are a small coastal area in Alaska (but you reach Antarctica, so what’s the point from going from cold to colder?) and the Hawaiian Islands, their antipode being Botswana.

On Ze Frank’s blog you can read about his wonderful idea to make a sandwich out of the Earth. Here you can search with an interactive map for different locations and their antipodal points.