Halfway between the Equator and the North Pole?
A
cache
by Northwoods Explorer
Hidden
:
11/5/2007
Difficulty:
Terrain:
Size: 
(Other)
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Welcome to the 45th parallel and Perry Maine. Here you are half way
between the equator and the north pole or are you?
This location has been commemorated since 1896 by pink granite
marker at this state roadside rest area on US Route 1 just north of
Perry. It states, “THIS STONE MARKS LATITUDE 45 NORTH HALFWAY
FROM THE EQUATOR TO THE POLE.” But is it really half way if
you had to travel to both the pole and then to the equator?
While it is commonly believed that the 45th Parallel is halfway
between the equator and the pole, this is not precisely true. Since
the earth is not a perfect sphere but bulges near the equator, the
45th parallel is a 45° angle drawn from the center of the earth
that does not quite match the halfway point of a line drawn along
its surface. Instead, the halfway point lies almost 10 miles north
of the 45th Parallel in the area of Whitlocks Mill at another rest
area.
When the metric system was set up, the meter was defined so that
the distance from the equator to the pole so that it would be
exactly ten million meters or 10,000 kilometers, making the
circumference 40,000 kilometers. That is why the little experiment
that you will do will work for you. In an ideal world halfway
between the equator and pole would be 5000 km. But the earth spins
causing it to bulge around the center which when coupled with the
fact that the original calculations were done over 200 years ago
leaves some room for error. So while the 45th parallel is the
halfway mark by angle it is not the halfway mark by distance.
Either way it is really cool to think that if you can step over the
line. Travel up the road and you will be closer to the pole while
traveling south you are headed for the equator.
Remember this is an earthcache so there is no container just an
earth science lesson in an amazing area. To log this cache, you
must then travel to a second set of coordinates where you will use
the information collected to calculate the diameter of the earth.
Then Email me through my profile the calculated diameter of the
earth. Below are the instructions for calculating the earth’s
diameter. It also would be nice if you would post a photo so others
would know what they have to look forward to at this earth
cache.
Drive your car to N44 57.198 W67 05.325 and find a location on the
side of the road. Where ever you are make sure that the latitude is
the only thing that changes. Now change you GPS in your setup to
read metric with the coordinates in decimal degrees (it should read
DD.DDDD.) Now read the distance in kilometers to the first location
using the find feature on your GPS and then determine the
difference between the two latitudes. To find the circumference of
the earth you must divide 360 by the difference of latitude in
degrees and then multiply that number by the distance (in km)
between the two locations. The number you get in your little
experiment is the distance in kilometers around the earth or its
circumference. If you divide this by 3.14 you will have the
diameter. Don’t forget to return your setting to what ever
you generally use for your GPS.
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Current Time:
Last Updated: on 12/9/2011 7:33:31 PM (UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) (3:33 AM GMT)
Rendered From:Unknown
Coordinates are in the WGS84 datum
