A Tale From The Center Of The World

Ever been to two places at once?

BY JOANNA ROBERTSON

It’s hard work being in two places at once, but today I did just that! I straddled the Equator. One foot on the Northern hemisphere and one foot on the Southern hemisphere.

Walking directly on the Equator line is surprisingly difficult to do since the Earth’s forces naturally want to draw you to one side of the line or the other, so you appear to be drunk as you teeter precariously from one side then back to the other. It’s quite funny.

Other interesting facts that I learned today at the Equator:

*You lose 30% of your resistance strength at the Equator (vs. when you stand to either side of the Equator line)

*The average sized human loses 1 Kilogram of weight at the Equator because the Earth´s gravitational forces affect you differently. (no need to diet here!)

*You can balance an egg on a nail at the Equator more easily than anywhere else on Earth (since the yolk and white are naturally drawn to the exact centre of the egg so it balances very easily)

*The sundial clock is actually more accurate than our hi-tech fancy watches. (Everybody’s watches were off by five minutes) We learned that this is because there’s not actually 24 hours in a day. There’s only 23 hours, 56 minutes and 44 seconds in each day. This is why we have to observe leap years to catch up every once in a while and put our hi-tech watches and our entire calendars back in sync with the universe!)

*We also learned that there’s an absurdly high incidence of UFO sightings reported on the Equator–even going back as far as the ancient indigenous cultures. (Personally, if I was on a UFO, I’d want to visit the Equator too–you weigh less here and the altitude in Ecuador makes everything seem funnier.)

Intriguing? Really? All of these little facts were interesting enough, but I had a bigger game plan in mind for the day.

I had serious business on my mind. My sole objective for the day was to find a toilet. Not just any toilet, but a toilet conveniently located right on the Equator line. I wanted to see what would happen when you flushed it. I´ve heard different stories–some people say that the flush spins in the opposite direction when you’re in the Southern hemisphere–others say that’s not true. But if it IS true, then what happens to the flush directly on the equator? Where does it go? Deep questions.

So, I didn’t find a toilet, but I did find a sink. Conveniently, the sink was mobile, so we could move it from one side of the equator to the other.

On the Northern hemisphere (about 10 feet north of the Equator), we filled the sink up with water and watched it spin down the drain. Then we did the same thing on the South side of the line. It spun the opposite direction! Then we put the drain immediately over the equator line and watched the water drain down completely straight, with no spin at all.

AHA! Now I can sleep at night. I hope you can too. (Though my sleep might be interrupted by occasional nightmares, since I also learned how to shrink a human head at the Equator. Step by step. Seriously. Can I somehow re-phrase that in a more positive way and add it as a newly acquired skill to my resume?) Maybe not, but I thought I would at least try. iT!

Joanna Robertson travels primarily for work, but always manages to find time to wander wherever she finds herself.  Her experiences have  taken her across five continents and 20-some countries, from city slums to rural community gardens and from humble homes to the middle of vast wilderness. But whatever the destination, Joanna is passionate about sharing her stories and experiences with anyone who has a heart to listen.

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