Equator
Etymology
Middle English, from Medieval Latin aequator, literally, equalizer, from Latin aequare
- Date: 14th century
Definitions
- 1 : the great circle of the celestial sphere whose plane is perpendicular to the axis of the earth
- 2 : a great circle of the earth or a celestial body that is everywhere equally distant from the two poles and divides the surface into the northern and southern hemispheres
- 3 a : a circle or circular band dividing the surface of a body into two usually equal and symmetrical parts
Description
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass. The capitalized term Equator refers to the Earth's equator.
In simpler language, the Equator is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole that divides the Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. The equators of other planets and astronomical bodies are defined likewise.
Crossing the Equator
Certain navies, such as the Royal Navy and the US Navy, have a tradition of holding ceremonies on board ship to mark sailors' first crossing of the Equator. These rites of initiation have in the past been notorious for their brutality. Milder line-crossing ceremonies, typically featuring King Neptune, are also held for passengers' entertainment on some civilian ocean liners and cruise ships.
Exact length of the Equator
The Equator is modeled exactly in two widely used standards as a circle of radius an integer number of metres. In 1976 the IAU standardized this radius as 6,378,140 metres (20,925,656 ft), subsequently refined by the IUGG to 6,378,137 metres (20,925,646 ft) and adopted in WGS-84, though the yet more recent IAU-2000 has retained the old IAU-1976 value. In either case, the length of the Equator is by definition exactly 2π times the given standard, which to the nearest millimeter is 40,075,016.686 metres (131,479,713.54 ft) in WGS-84 and 40,075,035.535 metres (131,479,775.38 ft) in IAU-1976 and IAU-2000.[1]
The geographical mile is defined as one arc minute of the Equator, and therefore has different values depending on which standard equator is used, namely 1,855.3248 metres (6,087.024 ft) or 1,855.3257 metres (6,087.027 ft) for respectively WGS-84 and IAU-2000, a difference of nearly a millimeter.
The earth is standardly modeled as a sphere flattened 0.336% along its axis. This results in the Equator being 0.16% longer than a meridian (as a great circle passing through the two poles). The IUGG standard meridian is, to the nearest millimeter, 40,007,862.917 metres (131,259,392.77 ft), one arc minute of which is 1,852.216 metres (6,076.82 ft), explaining the SI standardization of the nautical mile as 1,852 metres (6,076 ft), more than 3 metres (10 ft) short of the geographical mile.[1]
