The other side of the world. Antipodes.

Discussion in 'Earth Science' started by sweetpea, Aug 14, 2018.

  1. sweetpea Valued Senior Member

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    I come across this picture showing landmass on the globe and what landmass lays diametrically opposite it. I'm sort of surprised there is not more ''overlap'' of continents. It just worked out this way I suppose.
    See the picture to see what I mean.
    www.brilliantmaps.com/antipodes/

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  3. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    "Straight through the Earth" for me would indeed be in the southern Indian Ocean. Looks like I've cut through Cuba's basement one or twice on the way to Rooistan.
     
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  5. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    After all, the water is a pretty thin layer, not very significant in the mass of the whole globe.
     
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  7. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    70% of this "fine tuned" world will kill you if you try to stand on it.
     
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  8. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    100% of this world will kill you if you fall on it, 70 % will kill you if you try to breath it.

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  9. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    The word antipodes comes from the Greek: ἀντίποδες (antípodes),[5] plural of ἀντίπους (antipous), "with feet opposite (ours)",[6] from ἀντί (antí, “opposite”) + πούς (poús, “foot”). The Greek word is attested in Plato's dialogue Timaeus, already referring to a spherical Earth, explaining the relativity of the terms "above" and "below":
    .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}
    For if there were any solid body in equipoise at the centre of the universe, there would be nothing to draw it to this extreme rather than to that, for they are all perfectly similar; and if a person were to go round the world in a circle, he would often, when standing at the antipodes of his former position, speak of the same point as above and below; for, as I was saying just now, to speak of the whole which is in the form of a globe as having one part above and another below is not like a sensible man.
    — Plato[7]
    The term is taken up by Aristotle (De caelo 308a.20), Strabo, Plutarch and Diogenes Laertius, and was adopted into Latin as antipodes. The Latin word changed its sense from the original "under the feet, opposite side" to "those with the feet opposite", i.e. a bahuvrihi referring to hypothetical people living on the opposite side of the Earth. Medieval illustrations imagine them in some way "inverted", with their feet growing out of their heads, pointing upward.

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  10. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    I fall on this Earth quite regularly. That's why I keep my cell phone handy.
     
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  11. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    I'm sure you do!

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  12. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

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    While the Northern Hemisphere is mostly land and the Southern Hemisphere is mostly water, it will not always be this way. Over hundreds of millions of years, the inexorable pull of gravity has been causing the continents to flow southward. Eventually they will all pile up against Antarctica.

    This is known as Continental Drip.

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    Also known as the Sherwin Williams Theory.

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  13. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Yeah, I'm even less significant than the water.

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  14. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    It feels a bit odd, intuitively, to take as "opposite" a point that does not counterbalance, given the rotation.

    If imagining a spinning top, or a skater spinning, the natural "opposite" would be a point on a line drawn perpendicular to the axis of rotation, no?
    So (assuming a symmetrical body position) the natural "opposite" of the skater's left elbow would be the right elbow, not the right knee.
    The pull of gravity would be toward the center of mass - in Alaska or Greenland's case, say, toward the north pole (closer to the center than the equator).
    And if the flow is toward the equator, which is uphill, one would expect it to reverse once the equator is crossed.

    Or am I tendentiously spoiling a good joke - - - -
     
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  15. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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  16. sweetpea Valued Senior Member

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    You mean in the case of the Earth, the ''opposite'' should stay wholly in the same Northern or Southern hemisphere. Like in the film 'The Chine Syndrone', where the meltdown core is explained as ''burns'' all the way through from America to China.
    I must admit I used the term '' diametrically opposite'' after finding it given for defining Antipode in other places.
     
  17. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    Help me here. If you put a straight rod through a ball so that it passes through the center of the ball it will come out on the opposite hemisphere. You seem to disagree with this?
     
  18. sweetpea Valued Senior Member

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    I agree with what you describe.
    After reading Iceaura's post #11, I was trying to see where his view ''the natural "opposite" would be a point on a line drawn perpendicular to the axis of rotation'' would lead if applied to Earth. Hence my talking of ' The China Syndrone' and staying in the same hemisphere. Is that all squared away Captain?
     
  19. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    "I'm not an officer, my parents were married."

    I see that it's the "natural opposite" that doesn't make sense. Ta
     
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  20. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    We're thinking of a geometric opposite, without respect to any rotation. The rotation isn't really relevant in our reference frame, is it?
     
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  21. Gawdzilla Sama Valued Senior Member

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    Anything but straight through the center of mass would seem to be a special case, yes?
     
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  22. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    If we're surprised at the lack of overlap, it would be. That's all.
    70% ocean leaves 30% to arrange random overlap with - 15% and 15%, on opposite sides.
    Not the first time. I had to pretty much give up humor, here - too bad, but that's the scene.
    That would be: natural "opposite". You altered the good faith meaning. And you weren't joking, right? You see the problem - - .
    I'm not saying "should", just pointing at a factor in the OP tone of surprise.
    Sure. All good.
     
  23. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    But there is no "overlap" at all. Land or water at the surface are irrelevant to the globe as a whole. You might as well talk about "overlap" of forests or deserts. It's all just crust.
     

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