# East and West

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/east-and-west/108796>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 13, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/east-and-west/108796 "2002-05-13T12:58:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Summers\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Summers\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Summers_Son)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/east-and-west/108796/1 "2002-05-13T12:58:27Z")

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I gotta question…  
If i was living on the other side of the world, pretty much opposite to London on the globe. where a line going east and one going west would meet. which way is east and which is west from there on.  
if i’m living on this place X, is russia in the west and america in the east? does the dividing line bend like the time zone line, so as not to divide countries?😕

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**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/east-and-west/108796/2 "2002-05-13T13:40:28Z")

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Ok, you’re not quite getting the concept. In your example, Both Russia _and_ America would be both East and West at the same time. When people refer to “the East” or “the West”, they aren’t talking about countries but regions of the globe. The former usually refers to, say, China and the Surrounding areas. The West refers to the North Atlantic states, like France, America, Canada, Britain, Germany, etc.  
The _direction_ East is always toward one direction compared to the spin of the planet (assuming it spun exactly on its axis).

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2002, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/east-and-west/108796/3 "2002-05-13T13:46:11Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by smiling bandit \*  
> \*\*  
> The _direction_ East is always toward one direction compared to the spin of the planet (assuming it spun exactly on its axis). \*\*

Imagine the difference if we took wobble into consideration.