Saturday, September 10, 2005

Digging deep with Google Earth

News.blog reported For all of us who were told that if we worked long enough, we could dig a hole all the way to China, it seems we were woefully misinformed. A neat app built around Google Earth allows users to click on their current location and then shows where you'd come out if you dug straight through the Earth's core to the other side of the planet. Looks like the Blogma writers in CNET's San Francisco offices will have to bring our life vests along for the trip because we'll end up in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Tulsan's would end up in the South Pacific.
The only disappointment is that since most of the planet is covered with water, i.e. doesn't have high-res capability on Google Earth, many of the places users' "holes" end up can't be seen up close. But if you're one of the lucky ones who lives opposite land, zoom way in and check out where you'll pop your head out after the long journey through the center of the Earth.
If you dig from DC, you are still in the South Pacific, but if you begin swimming you may make it to Chile

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's wrong. From Michigan it pops me up off the coast of Chile but that is wrong. They are swapping the latitude but not the longitude - duh. I should be somewhere south of india

Anonymous said...

Google uses links like http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.771247,-73.967214&spn=0.010853,0.020262&hl=en
(the Frick collection in NY). The first is the latitude N and the second is the longitude E so the opposite would be latitude * -1 and Longitude if neg add 180 and if positive subtract 180. so we get
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-40.771247,106.032786&spn=0.010853,0.020262&hl=en
which is SW of Perth.
What the broken tool gives us is where we would come out if we dug so we could always see the north star while we were digging.