Say you start digging a straight tunnel from your current location and reach the exact opposite point on the Earth. Now how do you locate that place on the globe where that hole will open?
Well, you neither have to consult geography books nor make any approximations as there’s a Google Maps based web tool that will very easily solve this problem.
Called AntiPodr, this tools takes you current street address (or city name or zip code) and points you to a location on the Earth’s surface that is exactly opposite to you.
You can see the opposite location on the map as a pushup pin but they also provide the latitude and longitude co-ordinates for better accuracy.
The logic is simple: If the coordinates (longitude and latitude) of a point on the Earth’s surface are (θ, φ), then the coordinates of the exact opposite location will be (θ ± 180°,−φ).
So if you start digging a hole in New Delhi and then drop a ball in the tunnel, it will reach somewhere in the middle of Pacific Ocean. Thanks Launchfeed.
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/find-the-exact-opposite-point-on-planet-earth/5065/
Tags: Archives, fun, google maps, mashups, Internet
Reader Comments
This seems lousy considering Google Maps has its own widget/maplet that allows you to do the same thing. The “Dig a hole through the Earth” is a Google Earth maplet that does exactly the same thing with the added advantage that you can manipulate the location pointer on the earth’s surface seamlessly (as compared to the rigid requirements set by antipodr where you have to specify location accurately). And since the support is native to Google Maps, you don’t have to remember name of website, etc. Just log in to Google Maps directly.
Written by Ambuj Saxena on 10.22.08
Just in case some of you don’t know how to use maplets, here are the directions:
Open “Google Maps” > Click “My Maps” > Click “Browse the Directory” > Click “Dig a hole through the Earth” > Click “Add it to Maps” > Click “« Back to Google Maps” on top of page > Enjoy using the maplet.
Just browse around and you will find a treasure of practical and useful maplets.
Written by Ambuj Saxena on 10.22.08
This thing does not work perfectly.
To test this,
See where Bangladesh is located and again see where United States is located and then again see where Brasil is located AT THE OPPOSITE SIDE. Compare and you will find it doesn’t give right opposite location
Written by Munim on 10.23.08
This would have been very useful when they created the ‘ link ‘
Written by binnyva on 10.23.08