We Walked on the Equator
Visiting the Ecuador, you cannot miss the equator. The latitude line 0°0'0'' passes few kilometers north of Quito. There is even a bus that will take you for a 40 cents fare to «Mitad del Mundo » literally the middle of the world.
On site, you can see some funny near science demonstrations. The most known is emptying a water sink in the both hemispheres and above the line. In the south, the water goes down clockwise. In the north, it goes down counter clockwise. Above the line, it goes straight down.
But the funniest is to hope back and forth from a hemisphere to another and Bea managed to balance an egg on top of a nail over the equator (she even received a certificate for this outstanding achievement)
For the fun of it : in the 18th century, it took 14 years to a scientific mission to define the equator line location. The line was painted in orange. But when the GPS appeared, it happened that the real equator line was passing 300 meters away for the official site ...
Karim
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