Interesting Facts About The Equator

Most people know that the Equator is just an imaginary line dividing the northern and southern hemisphere of the earth. The Geography lesson which we had in school taught us that the latitude is 0 degree at the Equator and places in this region have constant high temperature, high humidity, high amount of rainfall and consistent amount of daylight throughout the year. The Equator is therefore perceived nothing more than just an important reference point on the world map. However, there are interesting facts about the Equator which our Geography lessons did not cover for unknown reasons.

Here are some of the interesting facts about the Equator.

Ideal Location For Spaceports

The earth bulges slightly at the Equator, making its diameter approximately 43 km greater than that at the poles. This feature makes places near the Equator ideal location for spaceports (e.g. spacecraft launching stations). As the earth regions around the Equator rotate at higher speed, less fuel is required to launch spacecraft.

Lesser Gravitational Force

It is believed that there is lesser gravity at places near the Equator than those nearer to the poles for 2 reasons. The first reason is bulging of the earth nearer to the Equator (similar to the point mentioned above) makes it further away from the centre of the inner earth, thereby reducing the gravity. The second reason is the presence of more centrifugal force at the Equator to reduce the gravity.

Absence of Coriolis Force

The Coriolis Effect is an important phenomenon that explains why water and air flows in opposite direction on the 2 hemispheres of the earth. In the northern hemisphere, water and air flows in the counter clockwise direction whereas in the southern hemisphere, they flow in a reverse direction. As mentioned above that the earth bulges slightly at the Equator, regions of the earth near the Equator spins faster than those nearer to the poles. As a result, air that travels in the direction of the Equator to the north pole gradually diverts to the right as the earth spins from west to east. The situation is similar for water flowing out of the sink. If you are still unclear, watch this video that explains the Coriolis Effect. Since the Coriolis Force acts in a north south direction, the Equator being the line that divides the north and south has no Coriolis Force. You would probably be interested like me to conduct a simple experiment yourself at home after learning about this Coriolis Force theory. I had observed that the water flows in a single direction downwards in the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub in my home. In fact, you really cannot rely on the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub for this simple experiment as which direction water would flow depends on the design of the piping system. Obviously, you would need a setup that eliminates all other variables which is shown in this video.

Due to the 3 interesting facts mentioned above, there are 2 interesting phenomenons observed at the Equator. As there is lesser gravity at the Equator, a person naturally weighs slightly lesser and would encounter difficulty walking in a straight line along the Equator because of conflicting gravitational pull from the north and south. There was also a simple experiment which a few poker cards (stacked together) placed along the Equator line were glued onto the palm of a man (without using any adhesive) when he touched them and slowly moved his palm upwards. It is also supposed to be seemingly easier to make an egg stand on the tip of a nail at the Equator. No where else on earth other than the Equator would produce such effects. The second phenomenon related to the Coriolis Force is that water neither swirl in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Instead, it flows downwards from a sink onto a pail when the experiment was conducted.

There are 11 countries in the world which are traversed by the Equator. These countries include São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. Some of these countries have erected monument at their Equator line. Ecuador, being particularly proud of its equatorial location has a monument known as Mitad del Mundo located 26 km north of its capital city, Quito. Mitad del Mundo was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the French Geodesic Mission, an 18th-century scientific expedition intended to help determine whether the earth’s circumference was greater at the Equator or around the poles. Every year, thousands of visitors flock to this attraction not because of its fanciful souvenir shops, posh cafeterias or interesting museum. Rather, these visitors are hoping to have photos of them with each foot on one side of the Equator taken and to witness interesting phenomenons along the Equatorial line. Unfortunately, this monument was built at the wrong place. The actual location is in fact 240 metres further north of this monument. This mistake was unknown until the invention of Global Positioning System (GPS) in recent years which helped to determine a more accurate position. Although many people argue that GPS may produce different readings depending on how it is calibrated and is subjected to interference, it is definitely more accurate than measuring techniques used during the 18th-century. Despite this big mistake, Mitad del Mundo remains as a tourist attraction because the mistake is too expensive to be rectified. Fortunately, for visitors who insist on getting to the real Equatorial line, there are two other sites available. The first site is the privately-owned Intinan Museum which the owner claimed that the real Equatorial line traversed through based on GPS reading. The second site is the Quitsato Sundial, a cultural-tourist place located 47 km at North of Quito. The location of Quitsato Sundial was also proven by GPS to be 00 00 00 0 degree north (i.e. true Equator). Google Map shows Mitad del Mundo and Intinan Museum are near each other whereas Quitsato Sundial is some distance away.

If you are living in Asia, you may choose to visit the nearest Equatorial line in Indonesia instead of traveling a long voyage to Africa or South America. There are several places in Indonesia which the Equator passes as mentioned in this article. The nearest site from Singapore is Pontianak city which is about 631 km away. The best time to visit any Equatorial monuments is during the March and September equinoxes when the direct overhead sun produces no shadow.Similar to Ecuador, there are also controversies that some of these monuments no longer lie on the exact Equatorial line possibly due to the shifting location of the Equator (I really do not understand how this is possible). Perhaps if you have the chance to visit any of these monuments, you can verify the location yourself using the GPS function in your smartphone. All you need to do is to stand on the Equatorial line facing the east or west direction with a smartphone on your hands pointing to the direction you are facing. When the readings show you 0 00 00 degree north, congratulations for earning the experience to stand on the real Equatorial line! If not, please move northwards or southwards accordingly based on the readings. The real Equatorial line should not be so far away.



Despite all the controversies of the location of the Equatorial line, it is interesting to witness the phenomenons in all the sites which claim to be the exact location of the Equatorial line. This leads to questions of whether the location of the Equatorial line is constantly changing, whether readings from GPS is indeed accurate and whether the experiments conducted at those sites are conclusive. There is also a theory mentioning that the Equator itself is not a mere line of several millimeters thick but rather a line having a width of 5 km which explains why those phenomenons happen within the 5 km width. Whatever the case is, Equator monuments around the world continues to draw tons of visitors due to the fact that the Equator is an important reference point on the world map.  

Another interesting thing worth mentioning about the Equator is that there is a ritual known as the Line Crossing ceremony that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. In this ceremony, sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed Shellbacks while those who have not crossed are nicknamed Pollywogs. Pollywogs are supposed to pay respect to King Neptune and endure a series of "hardships" administered by Shellback when the ship crosses the Equator. This tradition observed by ocean liners, merchant vessels and naval ships ensures that Pollywogs are capable of handling long rough times at sea in order to be promoted to a Shellback. Some cruise ships hold this ceremony for entertainment purpose as well.