Oh, wow, that’s a toughie. I’m in Illinois. Maybe Peoria? Or one of the Chicago suburbs, Naperville being the obvious one.
Thank you for doing a lot of my work!
I am a little northwest of you, and to my east I get Vigo, Spain, to my west I get Hiroo, Japan. To my north is Wild Goose in Canada, and to my south is Dzidzantun in Mexico.
One of the interesting things about antipodal points on Earth is that the vast majority of the continents are antipodal to ocean.
The continental US, for example, is completely opposite to the Indian Ocean where the only land is a few islands. Kerguelen Island is opposite to an area along the Canadian border: mostly Alberta, but also part Montana and part Saskatchewan, although curiously it’s not antipodal to the tripoint of those three. There’s also a couple islands whose names I forget that are opposite to eastern Colorado. Other than that, the northern part of Alaska is opposite Antarctica. Hawaii, though is mostly opposite Africa (Botswana and Namibia). Canada is similar. Besides Kerguelen Island, there’s a few others (Heard Island and maybe one or two more) plus Antarctica in the far north.
Australia is antipodal to the north Atlantic but no land at all, not even islands. Although some come close: the Azores are opposite to the Bass Straight (separates Tasmania from the mainland) and Bermuda is antipodal to the sea about 20 or 30 miles off Perth.
Good question! I have no idea unless you’re including things like national cemeteries, battlefields, military bases or installations, and that sort of thing. If you include national monuments and the like, there’s one with five miles of me.
Maybe you could define the sort of thing you’re after?
I kept it vague to include non-Americans. It could be anything, national park, national forest, wildlife preserve, military base, national monument, etc.
I’ve had another idea cross my mind. Using the aforementioned Center of Population (now near Plato, Missouri) as a center of whatever sized circle it would take, how big would that circle have to be (radius) to include HALF the US population? That would probably be a big circle since most of the Eastern half, and Northeastern quarter, would have to be crossed into before that population number got in the range of half.
One day back in my youth, when thinking critically about the classic “dig a hole to China” thing, I started looking at actual antipodes. As you said, trying to find a spot in North America that actually has a land based antipode is quite the challenge. IIRC there are a few spots in the Pacific Northwest that make landfall, and possibly some on the upper east coast as well. The easiest way I found to track those down was to start with various islands in the middle of the ocean and see where their antipode was.
5th largest city: Liverpool, I think. Or perhaps Glasgow.
Foreign cities, these are wild guesses: South, Cherbourg, France; East, Copenhagen, Denmark; West, Edmonton, Canada (are there any big cities east of Edmonton but on a similar latitude?); and there is no nation due north of here
No clue really. I can’t be very far from the 56 degree north line.
Nearest named body of water is the North Sea, maybe 20 miles away at a guess.
Either your memory is wrong, or your method for determining antipodes was defective. The best way to find antipodes is by going by lat-long. Latitude antipodes are determined by just switching the direction, N to S or vice versa. Longitude antipodes are found by subtracting from 180 and then switch direction.
Kerguelen: 49°21′S 70°13′E antipode 49 N 110 W This antipode is right at the Alberta-Saskachewan-Montana tripoint. The island is fairly large, almost as large as Puerto Rico. Most is opposite Canada, but some is opposite Montana.
I don’t know of any other islands antipodal to the US. The Crozet Islands are not too far away, but their longitude is around 50 E (antipode 130 W) but the US doesn’t get even to 125 W.
I think Corpus Christi is the fifth largest city in Texas, but it COULD be one of the “suburbs” in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolis.
The other questions, I’d have to look up.
One of my favorite questions:
You’re sailing your boat in the Atlantic. You approach the Panama Canal and are heading for the Pacific. What direction are you sailing within the canal?
I ought to be able to remember this one since it’s so counter-intuitive but this is just a guess until I go look it up:
You enter the canal itself headed southeastward, then turn northwestward after a few miles. Something about the isthmus’s geography is weird. Best I can do from memory. Good question! Thanks.
