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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4w5wbr wrote

Someone made a quip about a city being on the "other side of the world" and I was curious what these direct overlaps looked like. Turns out they are called "antipodes". Here is the Wikipedia page that goes into some detail as well. And here is a cool tool you can use to see what is directly on the other side of the world from where you are!

I found it amazing that only 15% of land has an antipode that is also land. And if you account for only 30% of the Earth's surface being land, this works out to only 4% of the Earth's surface having two points antipodal that are both on land.

It's just a product of how the land and water are laid out, but it's really cool!

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4w818q wrote

Replying to Art_Vandelay_Jr_ (#1,397,861)

Same! I guess if you think about it logically, if you pick any spot on the globe, there's a 30% chance it's land. Thus, there's probably a 30% chance that the spot on the opposite side is land (just thinking in terms of a homogenous surface). Multiply those together and you get a 9% chance of land-on-land action.

So I guess 3-4% as estimated isn't crazy, but it's only half as likely as we would expect it to be.

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Unleashtheducks t1_j4w82bl wrote

I would have guessed 15% (1/3 x 1/3) but land isn’t distributed equally so if it’s mainly all together in one area, it makes sense it would be less likely to be on the opposite side.

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wegqg t1_j4w83oe wrote

This is actually genuinely very interesting.

Good Op.

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Godloseslaw t1_j4w88mv wrote

But you can make an "earth sandwich" there if you've got a friend and a piece of bread each.

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disneyvacafacts t1_j4w8fg1 wrote

Makes sense, when most of the land is on one half of the earth it makes it hard for anything but ocean to be on the other half. The Pacific ocean take of 30% of the worlds surface.

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4w8iah wrote

Replying to Unleashtheducks (#1,397,922)

It would actually be interesting to see how this number has changed over time (and how it will change). With Pangea, it would've been something like 0% since the land was all on one side of the world. Maybe this number will grow in the future?? (Like millions of years haha)

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XSavage19X t1_j4w8me0 wrote

I'd like to hear some wild theories as to why this occurs.

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4w8pmq wrote

Replying to disneyvacafacts (#1,397,951)

I believe the Pacific is as high as 42% or something like that. It's massive! Go look on a globe and stare right at the middle; the whole hemisphere is pretty much ocean!

Makes it more bonkers to think about how old sailors could navigate to the tiny Hawaiian islands right in the middle of nowhere.

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[deleted] t1_j4w8wxj wrote

Depends on the elevation. The oceans are actually pretty shallow, geologically. You just can't be a wimp. Dig down before you demand an antipode.

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[deleted] t1_j4w9ccp wrote

Replying to XSavage19X (#1,397,963)

I mean. It's mostly because of how much water there is, how smooth the surface of the planet generally is (one really big, really deep fissure would make sea water 'bunch up' more), and plate tectonics.

In the Pangaea days, and at some points in the future, there were far fewer dry antipodes. The present day doesn't have the highest possible proportion of them, either.

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crackeddagger t1_j4w9f9j wrote

You won't fool me, Portugal! I'll still be the first to chart the path to the Indies!

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Landlubber77 t1_j4w9jw1 wrote

And somehow, 100% of it is Kelly Clarkson.

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TatonkaJack t1_j4w9w2z wrote

Now little kids gotta say they are going to dig a hole all the way to the Indian Ocean

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4w9zq8 wrote

Replying to XSavage19X (#1,397,963)

Just a product of where the land is situated. Nothing really "created" this statistic in the sense that the land ended up in certain spots and this statistic represents the state we are in today.

But, I also think it's a combination of aliens and magnets.

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EasternEast21 t1_j4wd0iy wrote

So "digging a hole to China" is just a myth then!

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alexxerth t1_j4wdhh5 wrote

I kind of wonder how this has changed over time. We've had a supercontinent cycle for hundreds of millions of years, I imagine that number drops pretty close to 0 when we've got like, Pangea.

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HHS2019 t1_j4wh0oi wrote

So you're saying that I *could* dig all the way to China...but I would need to start in Argentina.

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NeoPossum t1_j4wik08 wrote

This is a totally pointless fact. I'm gonna tell everyone.

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Nazamroth t1_j4wjzqk wrote

Fun fact: The Pacific is so large, it contains its own antipodes.

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krt941 t1_j4wmui7 wrote

Replying to A_1337_Canadian (#1,397,956)

It should rise. As the Atlantic expands the blue will move right and yellow will move left, so eventually North America will be opposite Africa as we get close to forming a new Pangea when the Pacific disappears.

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4wtuyg wrote

Replying to Blutarg (#1,399,265)

Interesting. I'm in a North American city and someone said, most likely in a hyperbolic way, that London UK is on the "other side of the world". And I thought, well, technically, any point in the northern hemisphere will have it's opposing location in the southern hemisphere. Then I was curious on the exact point, and led me here!

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hazily t1_j4wumrn wrote

And it seems like there’s only a few countries whose entire landmass is matched by an antipodal landmass: a quick glance it’s probably Malaysia. Singapore, the Philippines, and Taiwan.

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TikiNectar t1_j4x3t5t wrote

Viva Antipodas is a great movie about this

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whiteycnbr t1_j4x84r4 wrote

Is there somewhere you can dig to China?

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Low_Copy4023 t1_j4x9l1j wrote

I felt at some point, for personal reasons, that I'd like to live on the exact opposite side of the planet from where I am. It's somewhere out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Closest I could get would be Perth, Australia.

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4xa0o1 wrote

Replying to bloomy60 (#1,399,784)

I mean, colloquially, those places are on the other "side" of the world. If we think of what the other "side" means when talking about a sphere that rotates about an axis, the other "side" makes people think of the other "vertical" hemisphere when sliced along the rotational axis.

From a North American standpoint, take a city like Denver at 105 deg W. If you centre a vertical hemisphere over that longitude, then that hemisphere's borders would be at 90 deg either way. So from 15 deg W to "195 deg W" (15 deg E).

This ends up being a point off the west coast of the UK in line with the western coast of Africa all the way around to east of Japan.

While this is a technical definition I just made up, it sort of aligns with what people mean when they say "other side of the world".

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TLDReddit73 t1_j4xd86j wrote

You telling me, if I dig through the earth, I'm going to drown?

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Tiny_Fractures t1_j4xfavu wrote

Replying to A_1337_Canadian (#1,397,920)

I figure if earth is 70% water, then 20% of that 70% must be opposite land, taking the 30% down to 10%.

For the remaining 10%, 50% chance the opposite is land. 50% water. Thats about 5%.

(I know this math is wrong lol).

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isodore68 t1_j4xlhz2 wrote

Make a hole with a gun perpendicular

To the name of this town in a desktop globe

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Stswivvinsdayalready t1_j4xpdml wrote

Yes, this disappointed me during the Earth sandwich thing. Opposite me is way out in the Indian Ocean close to nothing. I can only ever make an open-faced Earth sandwich.

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herbw t1_j4xqjdq wrote

BS. Am not going to check either.

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AnthillOmbudsman t1_j4xtjqd wrote

So don't dig a hole to China in your back yard, you might have the entire Indian Ocean come flooding out of the hole.

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scooterjb t1_j4xuma0 wrote

So Chile and Argentina are really the only ones "digging to China" if they aim straight down.

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AnthillOmbudsman t1_j4xuwy9 wrote

Replying to A_1337_Canadian (#1,397,800)

"Are you trying to tell me," said Arthur, "that you made the Earth with hardly any land antipodes?"

"Oh yes," said Slartibartfast. "Did you ever go to a place…I think it was called Portugal?"

"No," said Arthur, "no, I didn’t."

"Pity." said Slartibartfast. "That antipode is in New Zealand. Which has fjords. I was going to have all the antipodes set up that way."

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mrbluezceen t1_j4xzcgh wrote

There's actually a really good movie/documentary about this called "¡Vivan las antípodas! - very arty! If you google it, it looks like it is streaming on several free services. Enjoy!

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dec7td t1_j4ydkyn wrote

Via playing Worldle I found two islands almost exactly on the other side of the world from one another. I figured it had to be super low odds.

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Due_Bluejay_51 t1_j4ykgjg wrote

People underestimate the sheer size of Pacific Ocean.

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dysfunctionalpress t1_j4ywbe7 wrote

it's a good thing i wasn't successful in my childhood project to dig thru to china...i would have just ended up flooding the front yard. dad would have been pissed off.

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chadburycreameggs t1_j4yy8hc wrote

What an odd fact for anyone to care about, even a little bit.

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Ennion t1_j4z08p0 wrote

So when I dug that hole as a Midwestern kid, I really couldn't dig to China?

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aightyeathatsme t1_j4z1z6m wrote

Looks like Argentina and Chile have some of the highest percentage of landmass covered by antipodes

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808_Lion t1_j4z3fva wrote

Huh according to maps my antipodal point is in Botswana, Africa. Neat.

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MacabrePuppy t1_j4z45ih wrote

I'm amused how central New Zealand is to that article while still not being pictured on the map.

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No-Recording2937 t1_j4z9qc2 wrote

About 30% of the earth’s surface is land so if the land was distributed uniformly across the earth, about 9% (30% x 30%) of the surface would be land at both points on the antipode. However, most of the land is on the northern hemisphere, so 4% feels reasonable.

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DavidVee t1_j5141m0 wrote

Fun fact but there are an infinite amount of points in that 4% so in a way there are an infinite amount of points that connect through land.

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j51cqla wrote

Replying to DavidVee (#1,407,804)

Infiniti isn't a mathematical quantity or "number" that we can use like that. It's more of a concept than anything. You could say that there are an infinite amount of places in the US, and in the world, for that matter.

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