Antipodes (geography)
Antipodes in geography refer to locations on Earth that are directly opposite each other. The concept can be visualized by imagining a rod extending through the Earth; if pushed through one point, it would emerge at its antipode on the opposite side. Antipodal points are determined using latitude and longitude coordinates, which define every place on Earth in relation to a reference system. The term "antipodes" has Greek origins, meaning "opposite feet," and was used historically to describe people living on the opposite side of the world, particularly in relation to Britain and its colonies.
Calculating an antipodal location involves converting latitude to the opposite hemisphere and adjusting longitude accordingly, which can lead to many land-based locations having their antipodes in the ocean. Interestingly, antipodal locations experience opposite times and seasons—when it is night in one location, it is day in the other, and vice versa for the seasons. While the majority of Earth's surface is water, some regions, like parts of East Asia and South America, have land-based antipodes, creating a fascinating interconnectedness across the globe.
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Antipodes (geography)
Antipodes are places directly opposite each other on Earth. If a long rod could be pushed all the way through Earth in one place, it would come out in that place’s antipode on the other side. For example, the North and South Poles are antipodes. Antipodal points can also be calculated by converting the latitude and longitude coordinates for one place to determine the coordinates for the other.
Background
The word antipodes comes from the Greek words anti, meaning “opposite,” and the root word pod-, which means “foot.” It is pronounced “an-TIH-puh-deez.” The word was first used around the fifteenth century as a translation of a Latin word that conveyed “men with their feet against our feet,” or people who live on the other side of the planet.
For a time, the word was used in this way, referring specifically to the people on the other side of the planet. It was most commonly used to refer to Australians and New Zealanders because these people were on the other side of the world from Britain, which colonized the countries. It is still occasionally used in this context. The word is also sometimes used as a synonym for “opposite,” as in the sentence, “My shy son and outgoing daughter are antipodes.” However, in contemporary usage, the word antipodes most often refers to geographic points.
The earliest discussion of the concept of antipodal lands appears in the works of the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela. He believed that there were opposing land masses in the northern and southern areas of Earth but that they were separated by an extremely hot area at the equator. St. Isidore of Seville, a scholar of the Catholic Church, also wrote about the concept in the Middle Ages.
Overview
While the idea of a long rod through Earth makes it easier to envision the concept of antipodes, the location of any two antipodal points is actually determined by using latitude and longitude coordinates. Every place on Earth is officially defined by coordinates. These are points that are used to definitively identify spots on a curved surface, such as a planet.
Each point is defined by how far it is from a specific reference point. Latitude determines where a place is located with reference to north and south and uses the equator, or center of Earth, as the reference point. Points to the north of the equator are said to be in the Northern Hemisphere, and those south of the equator are in the Southern Hemisphere.
Longitude determines location with reference to east and west. It uses an imaginary line, or meridian, located in Greenwich, England, as the reference point. This point is called the Prime Meridian. The Prime Meridian is located in England because nineteenth-century English mapmakers played a leading role in formalizing the system and chose the location.
Other imaginary lines of latitude and longitude are located at specified distances from the equator and Greenwich. Together, they form a grid over Earth that makes it easier to standardize locations for any place on the planet.
These distances are measured in degrees like the angles in a circle to take into account the fact that a planet’s surface is rounded. Determining how many degrees a point on the globe is from the equator results in the point’s latitude, while its distance in degrees from Greenwich determines its longitude. Together, a point’s latitude and longitude allow that place to be identified with precision. Each spot on Earth has a specific latitude and longitude reading.
Every place on Earth also has a spot that is exactly opposite it. The latitude and longitude readings can be used to calculate the antipodal position for any location on Earth. Determining the latitude for an antipode involves converting the original spot’s latitude into the latitude for the opposite hemisphere. For example, New York City is 40.730610 degrees North latitude, so its antipodal point would be at -40.730610 degrees South latitude.
Longitude calculations for an antipodal location are slightly more complicated. The prime meridian runs from pole to pole and not all the way around Earth like the equator does, so it is necessary to adjust the measurements for this. As a result, to figure out the longitude of an antipodal location, the original longitude is subtracted from 180 degrees, or half of the 360-degree measurement of a full circle. For example, the longitude for New York City is -73.935242 degrees West. Subtracting this from 180 results in a longitude reading of approximately 106.064758 degrees. This, combined with the latitude, puts the antipodal point for New York City far out in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of Perth, Australia.
The ocean location of New York’s antipode is not unusual. Due to the large amount of Earth’s surface that is covered with water, the majority of land-based locations have an antipodal point that is located in the ocean. Some exceptions include parts of East Asia and its antipodal points in South America and the archipelagos of Indonesia, New Guinea, and the Philippines; these areas have antipodal points in the area of the Amazon River and Andean mountain ranges. New Zealand and Spain share many antipodal points as well.
Antipodal positions experience opposite conditions at the same time. For instance, when it is midnight in one location, it is noon in its antipode. These locations will also experience opposite seasons; when it is winter in one location, it will be summer in its antipode.
Bibliography
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