Volker.Doormann

You can. "If a sky object - like a star, a planet, the Sun or the Moon - is ascending absolute perpendicular to the plain horizon in the East, then I do know that I'm standing on the equator".

Volker
(Astrologer)

Mageth

"How do you know you are standing on the equator?"

Look down to see if that big line runs under your feet.

A schoolboy, asked "What's the equator?", replied "An imaginary Lion running round and round the earth."

Undercurrent

It is true of large atmospheric phenomina like hurricanes. Somebody probably just embellished that story to include toilets.

Mageth

It is true of large atmospheric phenomina like hurricanes. Somebody probably just embellished that story to include toilets.

It could be that the "Counterclockwise Toilet Company" dominates sales in the Northern Hemisphere and the "Clockwise Toilet Company" in the Southern Hemisphere.

theyeti

Don't listen to these jerks with their silly ideas to measure the effects of gravity and watching the water go down a toilet. It's all very simple. At the equator, day and night are always of (near) equal lengths, regardless of what time of year it is. If you want to complicate things, you can read this page or this one, which explain why things like refraction always make the day slightly longer, but in general the equator is characterized as having equal days and nights year 'round, just as if it were another point on Earth in a perpetual equinox.

theyeti

lunachick

You guys ROCK!

Thanks for this. Timmy's coming over after school today for me to help him - I'll get him to post a wee thank you note to y'all.

theyeti

Luna, for a good visual aid, you might want to use this:



This depicts the Earth during the summer solstice, with Tropic of Cancer recieving the most direct sunlight. Notice that the equator is the only point on Earth which recieves near equal portions of day and night. Above the Arctic Circle, it's 24 hours of day, and the length of day gets gradually shorter as you approach the equator. Below the equator, the length of day is less than 12 hours and gets shorter until you get to the Anarctic Circle, which has 24 hour darkness. Everything's the opposite during the winter solstice.

The angle of tilt at the summer solstice is 23.5 degrees. But even if you were to tilt the Earth to 80 degrees, the length of day and night would still be roughly the same at the equator. In a scenario such as this, an observer at the equator would see the sun come up just barely above the horizon for about 12 hours, and then see it go just barely below the horizon for about 12 hours. Most other places on Earth would either have 24 hour sunlight or 24 hour darkness.

Just one caveat: I have seen a few webpages claim that the length of day and night are only the same at the equator during the equinox, but that the length of day varies much less there than elsewhere. I have yet to figure why this is so, or even if this is so. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

edited to add: If the length of day at the equator does change, it must be due to something other than the seasons. You might get a LOL at the results from this daylight calculator.

theyeti

Vorkosigan

Depends on altitude too. From my site in Kenya, about 20 KM north of the equator, you could see both North and South polar stars, buit I was up over 2000 meters.

Vorkosigan

lunachick

hello I am Timmy
I'm the school boy with the question. I'm just here to say thank you for answering my question. I am very greatful and again thank you.

SULPHUR

What happens if the boy is standing on the tropic at equinox. Can he draw aline and say this is the equator?