Almost Equator Cache
The cache, a small snap-top tablet pot camo-container, is hidden at a curio shop shack at the same latitude as an Equator signboard outside the shop which is located on the approach road to Ol Pejeta Conservancy main (Rongai) gate.
On checking with Google Earth, it would seem that the equator is actually some 230m or so south of here (see gallery snip from GE) - in case you want to take a photo of your GPSr with the magic N (or S) 00 00.000 !
It also turns out that even the equator sign on the nearby main A2 Nyeri-Nanyuki Road is also about 30m too far south! So the water drainage effect which will be demonstrated at your request is not only not being demonstrated at the equator but in actual fact is not real (see below)!
The cache was hidden with the kind permission of the owner and will be looked after by the shop manager.
Some Equator Facts:
- It is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and midway between the poles
- It usually refers to the Earth's equator: an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole, dividing the Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres
- It is about 40,075 kilometres (24,901 mi) long; 78.7% is across water and 21.3% is over land
- In its seasonal apparent movement across the sky the sun passes over the Equator twice each year, at the March and September equinoxes. At the moment of the equinox, light rays from the centre of the Sun are perpendicular to the surface of the earth at the point on the Equator experiencing solar noon.
- Places on the Equator have the quickest sunrises and sunsets since the sun rises and sets almost vertically throughout the year
- The length of a day (sunrise to sunset) at the Equator is almost constant during the year; each day is about 14 minutes longer than night because of atmospheric refraction and the fact that sunrise/sunset is the moment when the edge of the Sun's disk passes the horizon rather than its centre.
- The Earth bulges slightly at the Equator. Its 'average' diameter is 12,750 kilometres (7,922 mi), but at the Equator the diameter is about 43 kilometres (27 mi) greater than at the poles
- Locations near the Equator are good sites for spaceports such as the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guina, as they are moving faster than other latitudes due to the Earth's rotation, and the added velocity reduces the fuel needed to launch spacecraft. Spacecraft must launch to the east, southeast, or northeast to take advantage of this
- Its location not quite fixed. The true equatorial plane is always perpendicular to the Earth's spin axis which is fairly stable but drifts about 15m (49 ft) during a year - the Equator shifts likewise
- See here for more interesting information
The Supposed Coriolis Effect on Drainage of Water
- The effect of the location in the northern or southern hemispheres on water drainage through a hole as may be demonstrated on request at the equator signs has no scientific basis . . .
- Contrary to popular misconception, under normal circumstances water rotation as it drains out of hole (eg. a domestic bath or sink plug hole or a toilet or as demonstrated with a bowl of water at the equator) is not related to the Coriolis effect or to the rotation of the earth
- No consistent difference in rotation direction can be observed between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres can be observed
- The formation of a vortex over the drainage hole may be explained by the conservation of angular momentum: the radius of rotation decreases as water approaches the plug hole, so the rate of rotation increases, for the same reason that an ice skater's rate of spin increases as they pull their arms in. Any rotation around the plug hole that is initially present accelerates as water moves inward.
- See here for extensive information on this interesting motion effect