Posted
on October 9, 2015
In
Ecuador's fight to break free of its Spanish rulers, one city broke
away before the others—and declared itself an independent
city-state.
The
good news is that this ousting of the Spanish authorities was almost
bloodless. The Spaniards were arrested, not killed. Quite civilized –
especially for the time.
That
was October 9, 1820. Since then Guayaquil (which is Ecuador's largest
city and most important port, but NOT its capital city) has been
celebrating its own independence in October as well as the
independence of the entire nation in August 10. Here are two photos from a recent Guayaquil Independence parade:
To
learn more about Guayaquil, check out this recent post.
The Equator in Ecuador
You
probably know that the name Ecuador
refers to the Equator, the imaginary line that circles the middle of
the Earth.
That
means that you can stand in a certain place in Ecuador and have one
foot in the Northern Hemisphere and the other foot in the Southern
Hemisphere.
Did
you also know that the Earth bulges outward a bit in the center? That
means that the Equator is just a bit farther away from the center of
the Earth than places north and south of the Equator. In other words,
Earth is not a perfect sphere, but is instead an “oblate spheroid.”
 |
| This diagram shows what an oblate spheroid is. Of course, Earth's middle bulge isn't NEARLY as exaggerated as this one! |
\Way
back in the late 1600s, Isaac Newton suggested that Earth would be an
oblate spheroid – a bit squashed at the poles and a bit swollen at
the equator. He wasn't able to accurately measure and check his
hypothesis, but it turns out that the difference is about 13 miles
(21 km). Sounds like a lot, but of course this difference is swamped
by the size of the Earth, which has a diameter of almost 8,000 miles
(more than 12,000 km). That's why our planet looks pretty darned
round from space.
Still,
Ecuador's highest mountain, Chimborazo, is the farthest point on the
Earth's surface from the Earth's center. It's
height of 20,564
feet – and, don't get me wrong! That's high! That's higher than the
highest peak in all of North America, Denali! – still doesn't even
get it into the highest 100 elevations in the world. BUT, when you
add those 13 miles of the equatorial bulge – bam! Chimborazo is the
record holder!
Interestingly
enough, although Spanish is the official language of Ecuador, and
Ecuador
is Spanish for “Equator,” people in Ecuador don't normally call
the Equator by their country's name. Too confusing, I'm sure!
Instead, they call it “Middle of the World,” or Mitad
del Mundo.
At
the Mitad del Mundo monument in Quito, people can climb to the top
and get a great vista of both hemispheres...But, it turns out, the
monument isn't actually built on the Equator! A mistake was made in
1982, when the monument was being constructed, and our current
technology is able to tell us in no uncertain terms that the actual
Equator is about 100 meters (300 feet) away from the monument!
Well...that's
okay! Twice the photo ops, right? People get their photo taken
straddling the false, 1982-era Equator...
...and
the actual Equator.
And
you know what's cool? You can walk along the real Equator and see a
bunch of demos and experiments that show the effects of being exactly
on the Equator.
Also
on this date:
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Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
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