# Hemisphere **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 16, 1999, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921 "1999-05-16T23:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 1999, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/1 "1999-05-16T23:34:00Z")
I’m probably setting myself up for a big one here, but where are the dividing lines between the East and West hemispheres? The orbit of the earth and the path of the sun have conveniently provided us with a division between North and South, but I’ve just looked at several maps and couldn’t find a cartographic boundary that jibes in any way with my idea of what is East and What is West. I am going abroad this summer and it’s imperative that I know whether I’ll be leaving this hemisphere. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/2 "1999-05-17T00:20:00Z")
Check your globe and look for the arbitrary meridian lines marked 0 and 180. The 0 meridian, aka the Prime Meridian, or the Greenwich Meridian, goes through the UK. The 180th meridian isn’t nearly as alluring as most of it is in the Pacific Ocean. It does pass through Russia and gets pretty darn close to Fiji. Most of it is the International Date Line, but it veers in certain places. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/3 "1999-05-17T00:42:00Z")
I’d say, arbitrarily, that if you’re in Eurasia, Africa, or Australia, you’re in the Eastern hemisphere. If you’re in the Americas, you’re in the Western hemisphere. Doesn’t jibe with the dictionary definition I know, but that’s how I think most Americans use the term. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/4 "1999-05-17T01:01:00Z")
Seems to be consensus here of sorts. As an American, my natural concept is that California is West, Colorado is Mid-West, Ohio is the Middle East, and DC is the East. (Wrong, yes, I know. But it makes more sense to think of it that way.) I don’t really have a concept of how the US fits in globally. The most heated debates I’ve encountered over East vs West are centered on Russia. Everything to the ‘Left’ of St. Petersburg is West and everything to the ‘right’ is East. I read Somewhere, though, that, technically the Easternmost and Westernmost points in the Word are part of the US. (Alaska). As if all of the above weren’t enough to confuse me already. . . ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/5 "1999-05-17T01:18:00Z")
Ohio is never the middle east, as far as I know. I believe that is reserved exclusively for Beirut and surrounding areas. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/6 "1999-05-17T01:30:00Z")
Northern, southern, eastern and wersternmost States in the U.S.? Alaska, Florida, Alaska and Alaska respectively. But you knew that… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/7 "1999-05-17T02:31:00Z")
Au contraire, Omniscientnot, Hawaii is further south than the southernmost point of Florida. * * * “Equal Opportunity means everybody has the same chance at being incompetent.” --Dr. Lawrence J. Peter ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 1999, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/8 "1999-05-17T15:03:00Z")
For all practical puposes the Americas, or as Europeans used to call them; the New World is the Western Hemesphere. Eurasia and Africa (the Old World) is the Eastern Hemisphere. Oceana, Australia, Antarctica and the rest are just “other stuff”. Using the prime meridian and the International date line creates some real peculiarities. Who really thinks that Ireland is in the Western Hemeshere? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 1999, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/9 "1999-05-18T02:18:00Z")
I stand humbly corrected, Thuccotash ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 1999, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/10 "1999-05-18T02:32:00Z")
BobT I looked at my globe and had the same initial response, but could think of no controlling authority that deems it so. Regards ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 1999, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/11 "1999-05-18T03:23:00Z")
Well, as I think I wrote somewhere in this topic, I have a wierd conception of East-West on the Global Scene because my perspective is in Moscow. (My mental perspective, the is. I don’t think anyone develops a perspective on the Global Scene from the POV of Ohio.) Urban Russians have a very set concept of East vs. West, to a degree that most NAmericans never approach. Which is to say, I’ve never really discussed or considered East/West (Hemisphere or not) from this point. All my ideas about West and East were put tere by Russians. So I have always considered Europe Western. And, umm, Ireland, too. Of course, I had NO idea how the world is officially quartered. Ergo, this topic. Now that I think about it, isn’t it kind of chauvanistic to claim AN ENTIRE HEMISPHERE just for the Americas? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 1999, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/12 "1999-05-18T12:58:00Z")
For most purposes, I’ve always thought of Europe as Western too. As in “Western civilization.” Here at Hendrix College (no, it’s not named after Jimi) we have a mandatory freshman class called Western Intellectual Traditions–covers everything from ancient Greece on. For me the dividing line has probably been the Ural Mountains, tho now that I think about it, Africa is’nt really Western _or_ Eastern. Not even Middle Eastern. It’s just Third World. I guess it is pretty chauvenistic. BTW, what’s the diff between the Middle East and the Near East, and how come we never hear the latter anymore? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 1999, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/13 "1999-05-18T13:51:00Z")
All these things are from a Western-European perspective, since, culturally, the USA is an extension of Western Europe. Practically speaking, the “Western” and “Eastern” Hemispheres are just another way of saying the Old World and the New World. (You sail west to get to America from England.) But although Europe is in the “Eastern Hemisphere”, it is not “the East”. "The East is what is east of Europe. (Or else the USA, east of the Mississippi, or even east of the Appalacians.) A quick check shows that the “Near East” and “Middle East” have never been clearly distinguised from each other, except that the Balkans have sometimes been accounted part of the “Near East”, but never part of the “Middle East”. In the USA, at least, “Near East” is effectively a dead locution. * * * John W. Kennedy “Compact is becoming contract; man only earns and pays.” – Charles Williams ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 1999, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/14 "1999-05-18T14:52:00Z")
To expand on what JWK said, “Hemishere” is a geographical term, as opposed to reference to "Western Civ. or “The West” which infer culture. The “Western World” was the polite way the English and French refered to “the civilized world” as opposed to the “East”, which was where all the barbaric Slavs and Gypsys lived. The “Middle East” was the land of the “heathen” Mussleman (Muslim) and the “Far East” was the land of the “wise but backward” Indians and Chinese. The belief that the only valid civilization was the one that developed out of Greek and Roman culture and then infused with Christianity and the “Enlightenment” is one that still hasn’t disappeared. How many of you now in college are required to take two semesters of “Eastern Civilization”? Now that the Iron Curtain has fallen, the use of such terms serve no useful purpose in describing a geographical region. Australia and New Zealand have, for a long time, been considered part of “the West”. Are Poland or Hungary still in “the East”? I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 1999, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/15 "1999-05-19T01:23:00Z")
PB I think that’s why I had reservations about arbitrarily using the Greenwich Meridian as a fence line. Unlike the northern and southern hemispheres, whose boundary is the quantifiable equator, the eastern and western hemispheres are cleaved by a cultural divide. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 1999, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/16 "1999-05-19T03:02:00Z")
And I quote, sans any fancy code: “Unlike the northern and southern hemispheres, whose boundary is the quantifiable equator, the eastern and western hemispheres are cleaved by a cultural divide.” I knew there was something I liked about the equator. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 1999, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/17 "1999-05-19T12:49:00Z")
The Greenwich line was not for the purpose of dividing, but an arbitrary zero for the purpose of sailing, where you used your watch to tell where you were.There’s whole books about that. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 1999, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/18 "1999-05-19T18:33:00Z")
Correcting myself, According to “Glossary of Geographical Terms” edited by the redoubtable Sir Dudley Stamp, he defines “hemisphere” as “Half a sphere. It is common practice to divide the earth into the Eastern Hemisphere (the Old World) and the Western Hemisphere (the New World) using the meridians of 20 degrees W and 160 degrees E.” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 1999, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/19 "1999-05-19T21:28:00Z")
Wow, Bob, thanks. I was wondering when someone would check a dictionary. (I’m way to lazy for that, myself.) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 1999, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921/20 "1999-05-20T02:05:00Z")
BobT, That does help one avoid putting parts of England in two different Hemispheres, although it still wacks a bit of Africa in two – I suspect there is a bit of cultural influence. Funny, as well, because it seems to carry less import that a country might be in both the Northern & Southern Hemispheres. Regards [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hemisphere/6921.md?page=2)