How Far is Due East From Due West on Earth?

[bob012345]

TL;DR: How far is due East from due West on Earth?

The question is simply how far is due East from due West on Earth? I hope this generates some fun discussion. Enjoy!

Edit: This is meant to be taken as a puzzle.

 

[.Scott]

"Due east" and "Due west" are directions, not locations.
So there is no distance.

 

[Hill]

Is this what you mean?

 

[DaveE]

How far is up from down?

 

[Hill]

Reminds me of this incident:

 

[bob012345]

Is this what you mean?
View attachment 370923

I’m just interested in seeing the various responses to the question. What do people do with it.

 

[sophiecentaur]

How far is clockwise from anticlockwise?

 

[Filip Larsen]

On the surface of the Earth, I would say the distance is 180 deg in the sense that if you face due East, then after a 180 deg turn around the vertical axis you now face due West.

 

[Filip Larsen]

By another measure, the distance between "Due East" and "Due West" is 2.

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levenshtein_distance

 

[.Scott]

There are two trains, three train stations, and a bird.
Those three train stations are all along the same track at 200-mile intervals. From West to East, they are: West Bang Station (WBS), Big Bang Station (BBS), and East Bang Station (EBS).
The first train starts at WBS and travels due East. The second train starts at EBS at the same time traveling due West. Both trains are travelling at 100 mph.
The bird normally flies back and forth between the trains. But he's tired of that. And besides, it's Spring. So that bird flies North.

How far apart will those trains be in 121 minute?

Not a hint - just a link to a different solution.

 

[Filip Larsen]

By the way, if this is homework then forget my answers and show your own work done so far!

 

[bob012345]

By the way, if this is homework then forget my answers and show your own work done so far!

It’s not homework other than the sense that I’m working from home!

 

[.Scott]

How far is up from down?

For a Proton (with two ups and a down) it is less that 0.90 fm.

 

[DaveC426913]

Due East is 180 degrees from due West.

I am capable of conceiving of directions as being "near" and "far" from each other.

If I am sailing in a boat, a heading of 20 is a lot nearer to 10 than is to a heading 60.

Of course, the implications of that logic are that 350 is a lot nearer to 10 than it is 60...

 

[bob012345]

At the Earth’s poles, the answer is indeterminate. East and West do not exist.

 

[bob012345]

How far is clockwise from anticlockwise?

As @Filip Larsen suggests, 2 clockwise.

 

[Baluncore]

Rudyard Kipling answered the question in 1889, with:
The Ballad of East and West.
"
Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!
"
The full text.
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_eastwest.htm
Discussion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_East_and_West