So it does matter what direction I’m traveling in? I have lived my whole life on the US West Coast and flew west to get to Japan. Is that my furthest west? Or is it my furthest east because…?
Kids, for extra credit, find the two geographical errors here
North - Tuktayuktuk, NWT, Canada (69° 27′ N)
East - Dulles International Airport, VA, USA (77° 27′ W)
South - Maui, HI, USA (20° 48′ N)
West - Maui, HI, USA (156° 18′ W)
That’s sorta true and sorta not. Or at least the true part you mentioned obscures the rest you didn’t mention that may well be at the heart of these failures to communicate.
If you are in the eastern hemisphere and are traveling eastbound, the longitude number goes up as you move. Conversely if you are in the western hemisphere and are traveling eastbound, the longitude number goes down as you move.
So if one departed from the prime meridian eastbound, they’d watch their longitude-o-meter indicate ever larger numbers. Until they hit the antimeridian at 180 longitude. Then, while still traveling in the same direction, they’d see their longitude-o-meter indication start getting smaller again. Same direction of travel, but the behavior of the longitude reading shifted radically.
That’s what happens geographically at the 180 meridian. The consequences for timekeeping are a separate matter of no interest to me here, so I’ll withold any comments on that part..
But if you do count Narita Airport, the farthest east I’ve been is 140°23′ E.
- The physical/geographic North Pole is at 90 degrees north.
- The magnetic North Pole is not at the same location as the physical North Pole.
Technically it’s your furthest east. And that’s also what the OP reiterated he was trying to actually ask: most extreme longitude reading.
It would be common for somebody to say that since they went west from LA to get to Tokyo, therefore Tokyo is west of Los Angeles. And yes, that’s sorta true. But that’s the non-technical answer, not the technical answer.
Gold star for you!
North: Airport in or near London, as long as it counts if we never got off the plane.
Otherwise, The 49th Parallel, where Glacier National Park turns into some Canadian National Park.
South:
Cape Point, South Africa 34.35 S
East:
Amman Jordan 31.9 E
West:
Zion National Park 113.02 W
We are conflating three different things here.
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The Prime Meridian is the reference point for the coordinates of longitude.
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The International Date Line is about timekeeping.
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The direction you fly to a distant location is about the shortest route.
The only reason we refer to Japan, China, etc as “the East” is because they’re east of the old historical Europe where the terms were coined.
North - Detroit (forgot about that for a bit, as it was just for a 3 day training course)
West - Monterey, California
East - Tokyo, specifically Narita airport (I spent about 1 1/2 weeks in Japan, but this was the eastern most point I was at)
South - Key West, at the southern most point in the continental US
ETA: I’m using 180 degrees longitude as the dividing line between east and west.
North: A few miles north of the Arctic Circle – call it 67 deg N
South: South of the Azuero Peninsula, Panama – call it 7 deg N
East: South of Afghanistan – call it 67 deg E
West: Gulf of Thailand – call it 100.5 deg E
I’ve crossed 180. Should I call that both my farthest east and my farthest west?
Your description of Monterey, California as “west” and Tokyo as “east” is correct, but why on earth would you pick 180° longitude as the dividing line? The dividing line between east and west is well defined – it’s the Prime Meridian at 0°. That’s the point where longitude coordinates in the two directions become positive or negative, or, depending on your preferred convention, become designated “E” or “W”. I don’t know what this ongoing fascination with 180° comes from. Maybe it’s confusion with the International Date Line.
IMO yes.
Although the OP specified that being in an airplane doesn’t count for the purposes of this thread. Presumably he was thinking of needing to be walking around on the land [wherever] for it to count as having “been to [wherever]”.
He didn’t explicitly say whether being aboard a ship or sub underway should count or not. My bet is it should not count for the purposes of this thread.
But it certainly counts as to the question of “What’s the most extreme latitude or longitude I’ve been at / traveled through regardless of other details.”
North: Denali National Park, Alaska 63.28 N, 150.78 W
East: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada 44.88 N, 63.10 W
West: Wollongong, NSW, Australia 34.42 S, 150.89 W
South: Wollongong, NSW, Australia 34.42 S, 150.89 W
mmm
If you’re 30’ west of it, you’re at 179.5 east. If you’re 30’ east of it, you’re at 179.5 west. It divides east and west.
I just remembered. I’ve been further west than that. 121.9 W Santa Clara University
North: looks like Oban, Scotland, UK just beats out Moscow
South: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
East: As above
West: Lana’i, Hawai’i, USA
Sure, but so does the Prime Meridian which is expressly defined to do exactly that. Why would you want to pick a secondary consequence as your reference point?