As to coordinates of the exact opposite place on Earth, wouldn't a globe
simply answer any such question?
hi Steve. i thought of the same thing (though i do not
have a globe right now to test it out) though there is
the 'projection' issue of map-making and placing it onto
an imperfect sphere, how to wrap the map, which is one of
the things Buckminster Fuller did, i think, with his geo-
desics was to offer an alternative mapping strategy for
the globe. i wondered if, with the lat/long data, if it
were simply a matter of reversing numbers or something,
then to search by coordinates. not really sure how to
write a google query for it, either. i guess it is
possible to do the geometry though without coordinates
it will be hard to locate a place online, then degrees
of specificity would be interesting to know, too.
googled: http://www.google.com/ search?q=locate+opposite+place+on+earth&hl=en&lr=&client=firefox- a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&start=10&sa=N
*** here we go:
How do you find an antipode or point on the opposite side of the earth?
http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzantipode.htm
if minneapolis, mn
LAT: 44n59 LONG: 93w16 or 445848N 0931549W
then the antipode would roughly be....
44s59 87e
though i still cannot figure it out and find a workable
map searching engine, as i think there is a 'negative'
sign and it did not say how to calculate minutes/seconds
when minusing from 180 degrees (it may be -87 = 87 e)...
LOCATING YOURSELF IN A GLOBAL
GRID REFERENCE SYSTEM
http://www.umkc.edu/sites/env-sci/module1/weblab1.htm
great circle distance
http://www.answers.com/main/ ntquery;jsessionid=at935a730pkjb?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Great+circle+d istance&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1&sbid=lc02b
Great circle distance is the shortest distance between any two points on the surface of the Earth measured along a path on the surface of the Earth (as opposed to going through the Earth's interior). Because spherical geometry is rather different than ordinary Euclidean geometry the equations for distance take on a different form. The distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of a straight line from one point to the other. On the sphere, however, there are no straight lines. In non-Euclidean geometry, straight lines are replaced with geodesics. Geodesics on the sphere are the great circles (circles on the sphere whose centers are coincident with the center of the sphere).
Between any two points on a sphere which are not directly opposite each other, there is a unique great circle. The two points separate the great circle into two arcs. The length of the shorter arc is the great circle distance between the points. Between two points which are directly opposite each other (called antipodal points) there infinitely many great circles, but all have the same length, equal to half the circumference of the circle, or πr, where r is the radius of the sphere.
Because the Earth is approximately spherical, the equations for great circle distance are important for finding the shortest distance between points of the surface of the Earth, and so has important applications in navigation.
Look-up Latitude and Longitude
http://www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong.html
Resources for determining your latitude and longitude
http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~cvm/latlon_find_location.html