While working with Google Maps in Riderpedia, I always wondered where is the spot with coordinates 0,0: the answer is nowhere. Just some kilometres off the coast of Africa. And that’s a pity, would have been nice to put a big Google Marker with a double zero in it.

Reading about strage points in Google Maps, I’ve discovered that some place are supposed to be built in particular places, but actually they aren’t, shifted to some metres.
For example, one of the most famous monument built along the Equator is the Mitad del Mundo (Half of the World) in Equador, but actually is 100 metres above the Equator line. Also Greenwich, where the meridian is named, seems to be about twenty metres from where it should be.

Architects are not crazy, everything depends of the coordinates we’re using. Latitude/Longitude coordinates are supposed to be used with a perfect sphere, but the Earth is sligthly flattened at the poles. For this reason there are different coordinate systems that introduces some corrections projecting the ideal coordinates to the real surface of the Earth. The most used is WGS84, but if you change it… everything moves a little.
In fact 100 metres north if Mitad del Munfo there’s a museum that claims to be then only building on the Equator, if a lot of attractions for tourists.

Speaking about the Equator, seems that the flush water flowing in a different direction depending on the hemisphere (because of the Coriolis force) is an urban legend. Do you remember the Long Way Down scene where Ewan and Charlie were wathcing the demonstration of the Coriolis force with a simple colander and a little piece of wood? Well, apparently they just stumbled upon a tourist catcher with clever hands…

Tags: coriolis, equator, force, greenwich, mitad del mundo

This post was written by Guido Bellomo on 17 November 2009 at 7:53 pm under Cose strane a due ruote. You can follow the answer to this post through RSS feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.