And there are FAR more ways to order a deck of cards than there are zeptoseconds since the universe began.
Amazon, playingcarddecks.com, …what are the other 500 undecillions ways to order a deck of cards?
Cool idea! There a very few places this could have been done. Only a few countries have land that is antipodal to other land. Notable examples include parts of Spain and Portugal, which are antipodal to regions in New Zealand, and sections of China and Mongolia that align with Argentina and Chile. The rest antipode water.
Of course, I had to check my location. The antipode is in the Indian Ocean, about halfway between Africa and Australia.
Apropos of nothing, Dante Alighieri placed the mythical Mount Purgatory antipodal to the city of Jerusalem, which in reality is in the middle of the Pacific far from even any islands.
I don’t think that entirely rules you out.
j
I am very cautiously reading Huge Numbers: A Story of Counting Ambitiously, from 4 1/2 to Fish 7 by Richard Elwes. Cautiously, because it is brain breaking. In the last few chapters he introduces new ways of expressing numbers because the entire universe couldn’t even express the number in ordinary arabic numerals, and expression is far, far smaller than the actual numbers. And then he reveals sequences in which the previous discoveries lie next to zero in comparison.
I haven’t made it to Fish 7 yet but I will probably come out babbling.
Where it gets really fun is when you have multiple mathematicians who independently come up with new big numbers, each using their own notation, and one is doubtless ludicrously larger than the other, but because of the different notations, nobody’s sure which one.
Until eventually someone resolves it, usually by coming up with yet another new notation that encompasses both.
Sorry, I messed this up, so ignore this.
Again, ignore this.
I have been trying to post a Google map which shows how far the antipode of Jerusalem is from anything. I can’t figure out how to link to the map I can see on my computer. Got to Google maps and put in the location 31°46’48.0"S 144°46’48.0"W. Decrease the size using the negative sign on the bottom left as many times as possible. It will give you a map showing you how far it is from Australia, Asia, North America, and South America.
As nearly as I can tell the nearest land is Rapa Island (aka Rapa Iti, aka Oparo) in French Polynesia, perhaps 280 or so statute miles.
Such numbers can only be defined as the result of some mathematical operation; simply producing a proof of which inexpressibly large number is bigger than the other is a challenge. Even the difference in magnitude between them can be an inexpressibly large number.
Only three black state governors have ever been elected in U.S. history. And no two of the elected ones have been in office at the same time.
There’s also bits of Colombia and Ecuador which are antipodes of parts of Indonesia, Malaysia an Singapore. I discovered this when I was in Colombia at the same time as a uni friend was visiting family in Malaysia and we were trying to figure out if there was a spot it would be possible to make an earth sandwich.
OK, I was trying to figure it out, he was humouring me.
You are right: Bogotá has a solid ground antipode in Sumatra, but Medellín is in water.
It seems that most places that have solid ground antipodes have a Spanish speaking country at one extreme: Argentina, Chile, Spain, Colombia, Ecuador. And Portugal, OK. Portuguese is almost a dialect of Spanish anyway 
Of course I can only say that because there are no Portuguese speaking members in this board, or only lurkers. 
Yup. As I’m sure you know, the Pope’s Treaty of Tordesillas (1499, was it?) divided the whole world (rights to lands newly “discovered” therein) between Portugal and Spain. The line between Brazil and the rest of the Americas is famous, but at the time they were more interested in the one 180 degrees of longitude away, because Southeast Asia is where the quick money was at (spices). Thus, Macao, Melaka, and Timor to Portugal, and the Philippines to Spain.
So, for over five hundred years, there have been Spanish and Portuguese speakers at both ends of this rare example of land-land antipodes.
That reminds me of this recent Bizarro cartoon – “Large PIzza with Everything”
You have to scroll down to it
Also here
https://www.instagram.com/p/DYpDNdUj_R-/
Indeed they were, but the longitude problem was by no means solved back then, and the division is to all effects and purposes random. They drew a line that has nothing to do with the current Western border Brazils or with the location of the Moluccas, the Philippines or any other island. Not that they did not try, but they had no idea at all how big the Pacific Ocean, or how wide Africa, or the Indian Ocean, are. In fact the line they tried to draw was “a meridian 370 leagues (c. 2,100 km or 1,300 mi) west of the Cape Verde islands”, but they did not exactly know where those were either.
Yes, but by chance, and only Colombia/Ecuador vs Indonesia/Malaysia (and Singapore? Come on, @Filbert, Singapore was never a country!*). And that bit was not ruled by the treaty of Tordesillas, Colombia and Ecuador being firmly on the Spanish’ crown’s side. The rest, Spain/Portugal vs New Zealand and Argentina/Chile vs. China/Mongolia are pure chance.
And an antimeridian does not yet make an antipode: Hawaii, for instance, is 154° 48′ W to 178° 22′ W, but that does not make them an antipode of the UK, both being in the northern hemisphere.
* Cite:
In its early history, Singapore was a maritime emporium known as Temasek; subsequently, it was a major constituent of several successive thalassocratic empires. Its contemporary era began in 1819, when Stamford Raffles established Singapore as an entrepôt trading post of the British Empire. In 1867, Singapore came under direct British control as part of the Straits Settlements. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan in 1942 and returned to Britain as a Crown colony following Japan’s surrender in 1945. Singapore gained self-governance in 1959 and in 1963 became part of the new federation of Malaysia, alongside Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak. Ideological differences led to Singapore’s expulsion from the federation two years later; it became an independent sovereign country in 1965.
TL;DR: Singapore is younger than me (as an independent country)!
As usual, it’s messy (but 1499 is close enough):
The lands to the east [of a meridian that was geographically inaccurate, see above - P-L] would belong to Portugal and the lands to the west to Castile, modifying an earlier bull by Pope Alexander VI. The treaty was signed on 7 June 1494, then ratified by Spain on 2 July 1494, by Portugal on 5 September 1494, and by Pope Julius II on 24 January 1506. The other side of the world was divided a few decades later by the Treaty of Zaragoza, signed on 22 April 1529, which specified the antimeridian to the line of demarcation specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas. Portugal and Spain largely respected the treaties, while the Indigenous peoples of the Americas did not acknowledge them.
Well, that was a nice bit of nitpicking! Waiting for the unavoidable mistakes to be pointed out.
And IMHO one of two inherently funny languages, the other being Italian.
I’m also hoping there are no Portuguese speakers on the board or both Pardel-Lux and me are going to have an appointment in the Pit shortly.