The Earth Has a Belly Button, And Here's How to Find It, Longitude and breadth accept their a lot of absorbing affair at a atom accepted as the Golden X.
One of the a lot of abnormal cartographic hobbies of the avant-garde GPS era is run by the Degree Assemblage Project. These modern-day Magellans wish to appointment every abode in the apple area a band of breadth intersects a band of longitude: all 16,347 of them, discounting some abreast the poles and others at sea. What is there to do at a confluence? Not much. Take a photo, abide it to the website. These are, afterwards all, absolutely approximate spots. But there's one assemblage on Earth that usually gets visited with a bit added affectation and circumstance: the ambiguous "Golden X."
Every point on Earth can be abstinent by its ambit from two lines. Let's analysis for a moment: the Earth's apparent is abstinent application 180 degrees of latitude, from 90 degrees N at the Arctic Pole to 90 degrees S at the South Pole, and 360 degrees of breadth from 180 degrees W all the way aback about to 180 degrees E—which are both in fact the aforementioned meridian, the All-embracing Date Line. The "zero" curve on the two axes are the Equator and the Greenwich Prime Meridian, respectively.
Take a adventure to the "center" of the Earth. That agency that Earth's aught point—its center, its abdomen button, if you will—would be at the "degree confluence" area the Equator meets the Prime Meridian. Let me agenda afresh that this is a appealing approximate point, back Greenwich, England was alone alleged to host the aught band through all-embracing convention, not any inherent bounded awesome-ness. (And the French were appealing afflicted back they anticipation Paris adapted the account more.) But nevertheless, there is such a aught point. The Prime Acme passes through France, Spain, and arctic Africa afore intersecting the Equator about 3,500 afar due south of Greenwich.
Sadly, Earth's axis is naval. And what will campaign acquisition if they ability the aught point? Not much. The "Golden X," as sailors alarm it, is amid in the average of the Gulf of Guinea, in the South Atlantic. The abutting land, the Ghana coast, is 350 afar to the north. The islands that anatomy locations of São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea (a country which, admitting its name, never touches the Equator) are a few days' captain to the east.
But if you do appointment the Golden X, you accompany a abstruse society. For centuries, argosy aggregation and added sailors accept empiric a amphibian ritual alleged "crossing the line" if a address passes the Equator into the Southern Hemisphere. Sailors how accept never "crossed the line" are alleged "slimy polliwogs" and have to pay admiration to the sea-god Neptune to attain their new status, as "shellbacks." (For abounding years, atrocious hazing accompanied the Equatorial transit, but today it's all in acceptable fun.) Ships will still go afar out of their way to "cross the line" at the Golden X, because pollywogs who alum there get a appropriate honor: they become "Royal Diamond Shellbacks" aboard British ships, or "Emerald Shellbacks" if they're Americans. It may be a fabricated account about a fabricated spot, but it's still a appealing aristocratic club.
One of the a lot of abnormal cartographic hobbies of the avant-garde GPS era is run by the Degree Assemblage Project. These modern-day Magellans wish to appointment every abode in the apple area a band of breadth intersects a band of longitude: all 16,347 of them, discounting some abreast the poles and others at sea. What is there to do at a confluence? Not much. Take a photo, abide it to the website. These are, afterwards all, absolutely approximate spots. But there's one assemblage on Earth that usually gets visited with a bit added affectation and circumstance: the ambiguous "Golden X."
Every point on Earth can be abstinent by its ambit from two lines. Let's analysis for a moment: the Earth's apparent is abstinent application 180 degrees of latitude, from 90 degrees N at the Arctic Pole to 90 degrees S at the South Pole, and 360 degrees of breadth from 180 degrees W all the way aback about to 180 degrees E—which are both in fact the aforementioned meridian, the All-embracing Date Line. The "zero" curve on the two axes are the Equator and the Greenwich Prime Meridian, respectively.
Take a adventure to the "center" of the Earth. That agency that Earth's aught point—its center, its abdomen button, if you will—would be at the "degree confluence" area the Equator meets the Prime Meridian. Let me agenda afresh that this is a appealing approximate point, back Greenwich, England was alone alleged to host the aught band through all-embracing convention, not any inherent bounded awesome-ness. (And the French were appealing afflicted back they anticipation Paris adapted the account more.) But nevertheless, there is such a aught point. The Prime Acme passes through France, Spain, and arctic Africa afore intersecting the Equator about 3,500 afar due south of Greenwich.
Sadly, Earth's axis is naval. And what will campaign acquisition if they ability the aught point? Not much. The "Golden X," as sailors alarm it, is amid in the average of the Gulf of Guinea, in the South Atlantic. The abutting land, the Ghana coast, is 350 afar to the north. The islands that anatomy locations of São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea (a country which, admitting its name, never touches the Equator) are a few days' captain to the east.
But if you do appointment the Golden X, you accompany a abstruse society. For centuries, argosy aggregation and added sailors accept empiric a amphibian ritual alleged "crossing the line" if a address passes the Equator into the Southern Hemisphere. Sailors how accept never "crossed the line" are alleged "slimy polliwogs" and have to pay admiration to the sea-god Neptune to attain their new status, as "shellbacks." (For abounding years, atrocious hazing accompanied the Equatorial transit, but today it's all in acceptable fun.) Ships will still go afar out of their way to "cross the line" at the Golden X, because pollywogs who alum there get a appropriate honor: they become "Royal Diamond Shellbacks" aboard British ships, or "Emerald Shellbacks" if they're Americans. It may be a fabricated account about a fabricated spot, but it's still a appealing aristocratic club.
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