Where is true 30N by -90W?
P: Roxanne…. As I was looking at your new home in Google Earth, I noticed that your GPS address is essentially 30 North by 90 West.
R: woah really?? That’s so clean i love it
P: Well, it is actually: 29.9455 North by 90.12788 West. But normal rounding get you that clean address.
R: i’m gonna tell my roommates - maybe we could make a little sign…30 north by 90 west (with rounding)
P: Roxanne….. when you are out and about you might look for those dark blue stripes running North-South and East-West. They are nearby. Thirty degrees North is a third of the way from the equator to the North Pole. Ninety degrees West is one quarter of the way around the world from the Greenwich Observatory in London where there is a prominent brass bar in the concrete floor marking zero, the “Prime Meridian.” When we visited London, I stood right there with one footing the Eastern Hemisphere and one in the Western Hemisphere. I have a picture (but this is a stock image that the webmaster has inserted, a placeholder until the real thing can be located). So it is really easy to quickly pull up a mental image of where you are in the world. ….. LoveYa! Paw
BUT THEN
P: Roxanne…. I went back to Google Earth to answer your question. It was a humbling experience. What sounded to me like a small rounding error covers a lot of ground when expressed as a location on the giant Earth. It is way up-river from you.
It turns out that there is a restaurant/bar with live music near that location named 30/90. It is on Frenchman where it meets Decatur. However, even this drinking establishment cheated a bit. Their real GPS address is 29.9544N by -90.0750W. LoveYa! Paw
