To calculate the position of your antipode:

1. Find your latitude and longitude.
2. Calculate your antipodal longitude:
• If your longitude > 0, (i. e. in the Eastern Hemisphere), add it to -180.
• If your longitude< 0, (i. e. in the Western Hemisphere), subtract it from 180.
3. Your antipodal latitude is the same as your own latitude, swapping north with south.

So, the antipode of Holland, Michigan (42.47 N, 86.07 W) is (42.47 S, 93.93 E), in the open ocean 2000 km (1600 miles) southwest of Australia.

Your antipode probably isn't where you think it is, despite several popular clichés. While digging for China will indeed get you to your antipode, if you happen to live in Argentina, Australia is really opposite the Sargasso Sea, and the antipodes of all of North America are adrift in the southern Indian Ocean (the northern coast of Alaska and Canada scrapes Queen Maud Land).

Some other pairs of places that are antipodal, or nearly so, include:

• Bermuda <-> Perth, Australia
• Melbourne, Australia <-> The Azores
• Thule (Qanaq), Greenland <-> Mc Murdo, Antarctica
• Wellington, New Zealand <-> Madrid, Spain
• Christchurch <-> Villalba, Galicia, Spain
• Bogota, Colombia <-> Djakarta, Indonesia
• Asuncion, Paraguay <-> Taipei, Taiwan
• Rapa Nui (Easter Island) <-> Rahimyar Khan, Pakistan
• Arequipa, Peru <-> midway between Da Nang and Hue, Vietnam
• Okinawa <-> União da Vitoria, southern Brazil
• Hawaii <-> Okavango Delta, Botswana
• Tomboctou, Mali <-> Viti Levu, Fiji
• Norfolk Island <-> Lanzarote, Canary Islands
• Punta Arenas, Chile <-> Ust-Barguzin, Russia, on the shores of Lake Baikal
• Tristan da Cunha (South Atlantic Ocean) <-> Guam
• Saint Paul Island <-> Wild Horse, Colorado
• Papeete, Tahiti <-> a bit north of 'Ellai, Sudan

The term The Antipodes is used in literature or in a humourous context to refer to Australia and/or New Zealand.

An*tip"o*des (#), n. [L. pl., fr. Gr. with the feet opposite, pl. ; against + , , foot.]

1.

Those who live on the side of the globe diametrically opposite.

2.

The country of those who live on the opposite side of the globe.

Latham.

3.

Anything exactly opposite or contrary.

Can there be a greater contrariety unto Christ's judgment, a more perfect antipodes to all that hath hitherto been gospel? Hammond.

 

© Webster 1913.