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Blutarg t1_j4wrlqb wrote

Reply to comment by A_1337_Canadian in TIL that only about 4% of the Earth's surface has two points on opposite sides of the world that are both on land by A_1337_Canadian

Huh, mine is a lot closer to Madagascar than I would have thought.

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4wtuyg wrote

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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bloomy60 t1_j4x0k5y wrote

As someone that lives in New Zealand I laugh slightly sadly when I hear people in America say the UK or europe is on the other side of the world. It's one medium length flight away.

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A_1337_Canadian OP t1_j4xa0o1 wrote

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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Soldier5ide t1_j4y9mn1 wrote

Having moved from the UK to S.E. US, very weird to see on these maps that it’s the (rough) equivalent of going from SW Australia to New Zealand.

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bloomy60 t1_j4yquky wrote

Yeap, Perth is 7 hours away. Apart from the islands which are a measly 4hrs away the next place is like Bali which is something like 10 hours.

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