See what's on the other side of the earth

http://www.freemaptools.com/tunnel-to-other-side-of-the-earth.htm

this is seriously handy

Damn, I wasn't on track for China at all.

That justs lets you know how much water is on this planet.  wow

Yeah, almost anywhere you click, the far side will be water, because almost all of the land in the world is in the Northern Hemisphere, and the planet is 2/3 or 3/4 or whatever it is covered by water, so an enormous portion of the Southern Hemisphere is water ... probably close to 90%.  Only Australia, Antarctica, sub-Saharan Africa, and the southern part of South America (the Equator runs through the northern part of Brazil) are below the Equator, and of course, Antarctica is uninhabited and Australia is pretty lightly populated for its size.

I was fascinated by the relationship between Northern Canada/Russia/Scandinavia line up with the northern most portions of Antarctica.  Makes perfect sense, just hadn't given it any thought in that way.

 

Bill Bryson says that when he grew up in Britain, all the children believed that if they could dig a hole deep enough, they would come out in China. When he moved to the United States, he was surprised that all the children still thought they could dig to China.

 

I also read that in the 1500's when they explorers were starting to fill in all the white spaces on the globe, it was thought that there had to be some supercontinent opposite Europe and Asia, or else the earth would be lopsided. Of course, all they found was empty ocean with scattered islands in the South Pacific.

 

An interesting physics problem shows that if a deep tunnel could be constructed, that went on a straight line between any two points on the surface of the earth, and a frictionless railroad could be built in that tunnel, the train would gain velocity for the first half of the trip and lose velocity for the second half, under the effect of gravity. Guess what the travel time would be? Just 45 minutes! This is independent of where the two points were. New York to Paris: 45 minutes. New York to Bangkok: 45 minutes. New York to L.A.: 45 minutes.

New York to Jersey City: 45 minutes. :-)

I wonder what Chinese kids say to each other when they start digging tunnels in their back yards

Bill Bryson says that when he grew up in Britain, all the children believed that if they could dig a hole deep enough, they would come out in China. When he moved to the United States, he was surprised that all the children still thought they could dig to China.

It was a recurring theme in Looney Tunes