New Zealand - NOT The Antipode of Virginia

New Zealand Map 

ANTIPODE!  My Gosh, it sounds like someone just tried to KILL my FOOT.

ANTIPODE is the position exactly opposite on the globe from another location. Interestingly the antipode for our region of Virginia here near Richmond is almost exactly on New Zealand. Actually, it's a little bit to the East and in the Pacific Ocean, but New Zealand is the closest landmass to our antipode. Here is where I admit to being a total idiot and telling people the wrong thing.  SO..... the Antipode is actually in the Indian Ocean, just west. Of Australia.  So, no. ... what you've heard all these years is not true... if you dug a hole through the earth you WOULD NOT reach CHINA..... IF you did not burn to ashes or get crushed by the intense pressure of Earth's interior....which you would..... Then when you broke through you would be crushed & dround by the Indian Ocean spilling down on you   So... take that Jules Verne! 

So let's practice... Here is the latitude and longitude for Cosby High School

Latitude: 37° 24' 12.77" N
Longitude: 77° 42' 5.87" W

Notice the little tick marks? Yeah, that causes kids no end to trouble when they're doing coordinates on a map. Mostly because the maps they're working with will NEVER have details down to minutes and seconds on their phones. Neither will you.

That's one of my beefs with the SOLs (VA Standardized testing)... In the real world nowadays, everything's in decimal places. Really easy nice simple base-10 DECIMALS. Just like metric. 

Oh wait... It is metric! You already know how to metric... You know how to MATH your MONEY?  ....... METRIC!

So let's look at this for decimals. Because while I can subtract in base-60 (minutes.... seconds.... they're in 60s), it's not really EASY or worth teaching when the WHOLE WORLD USES DECIMALS.

Cosby High School - 37.40 degrees north, 77.72 degrees west

Another interesting point here, in decimals on your GPS NEGATIVE will be used for South and West. Positive is used for Northern/Eastern Hemispheres.  Negative is used for Southern/Western Hemispheres.  It's the way the GRATICULE (a.k.a. Map Grid) works.  As always, the first number is still always latitude and the second number is always longitude.

So let's calculate ANTIPODE... Your north-south designation is just swapped. So 37.4 North Latitude now becomes 37.4 degrees SOUTH.  

The reason this works is because of the EQUATOR. The equator is 0 degrees - other latitudes are parallel, counting up to 90 for the North Pole and counting up to 90 for the South Pole. So any position north of the equator the opposite will be the EXACT SAME NUMBER south of the Equator and vice versa.

Longitude is a little bit more challenging, but not hard. Longitude is counted from 0 degrees which goes through Greenwich England (The Prime Meridian) up to 180 at the International Date Line, (middle of the Pacific Ocean).  So to get the opposite position for Longitude, just subtract 180 from your longitude number before reversing the direction.

180 - 77.72 = 102.28  That's pretty good for math in my head using the voice to text feature while doing ....ummm..... other things.  So.... antipode is 102.28 EAST Longitude.

https://www.mapsofworld.com/lat_long/newzealand-lat-long.html

NEW ZEALAND - as you see above... is right about 37 South, but is FAR FAR from 102 East.  More like 175-ish East.  Just past the International Date Line (180)

HOWEVER.... here is 37 S, 102 E - Indian Ocean -- I'm such a goober.  Sorry DAVIS!  Sorry ANIKA!  Sorry everyone else I told New Zealand is the Antipode!  This is why you always check your references, people!!!

Why don't you try it now... Look up a favorite destination spot -- then find your ANTI-PODE!