If You Start Digging in Sioux Falls Will You End Up in China?
I realize that several of the things I am about to share will confirm one thing to everyone reading this.
I'm old!
So ancient in fact that I remember my childhood when I spent many a day outside, playing for hours, armed with only an imagination. Not an electronic device anywhere, with the possible exception of a transistor radio (You're going to have to Google that kids).
When the occasion would call for a little digging in the dirt, I would find myself daydreaming about one of the common tales we were told back then - if you could somehow manage to burrow all the way from one side of the earth to the other, you'd find yourself poking your head out of a roughly 8,000-mile tunnel somewhere in China.
Given the fact that neither me, nor any of my friends had ever been to the Far East, and considering that China covers more than 3,000,000 square miles, it seemed more than reasonable that there is where I'd end up.
Boy was I wrong.
To accurately predict what lies on the exact opposite side of the globe from any location, you turn to what is called an Antipodes Map, which takes a spot's longitude and latitude in one hemisphere and determines its corresponding location in the other hemisphere.
In the case of Sioux Falls (Northern Hemisphere) for instance, when you put in the coordinates 43.549975, -96.700327 (43° 32' 59.9" N, 96° 42' 1.2" W) and you are then whisked away to a place in the Southern Hemisphere at the other end of that imaginary line.
But before you book any plane tickets to this exotic location, there's one thing you need to know - you can only get there by boat.
You see, Sioux Falls' opposite number on the globe is a spot smack dab in the middle of the Indian Ocean -43.549975, 83.299673 (43° 32' 59.9" S, 83° 17' 58.8" E), with South Africa a considerable distance to the West and Australia equally as far away to the East.
But before you start to feel bad, remember, nearly every spot in the United States has a corresponding spot in the same vast body of water.
Turns out that if you want to end up in China, you'd need to start your journey in only one of two places on the globe - either Argentina or Chile.
Happy digging!
Sioux Falls: Then and Now
Gallery Credit: Andy Gott
The Ultimate Sioux Falls Visitor's Guide: A to Z
Gallery Credit: Karla Brown - KKRC