Greenwich and Prime Meridian
Outside of London there is a small town called Greenwich. Greenwich is small, but it is on almost every physicists bucket list. Greenwich is the Prime Meridian of the world. The Prime Meridian separates east and west which makes it control time too. Many representatives from different cities got together in 1884 in D.C. and decided which city should be picked to be the Prime Meridian of the world. Out of all of them Greenwich was picked. One of the main reasons Greenwich was picked was because over 2/3 of the ship maps used Greenwich for the Prime Meridian. When we got there we looked for the signs that said The Royal Observatory. The Royal Observatory is where the big Prime Meridian part is. All around The Royal Observatory there is a beautiful park with lots and lots of dogs being walked. Right in the middle of the flat park there is a big hill that does not seem to really fit. On top of the hill sits the Royal Observatory. We went into a museum and saw lots of cool telescopes. Some were huge. We got to see a section of a 40-foot reflecting telescope that was used by William Herschel. He’s the guy that discovered Uranus! There were also lots of sundials and clocks. One clock used time with degrees instead of numbers, which made 12 o’clock equal -360. We walked outside onto a porch where there was a line going straight with a point going out. This was the exact line for the Prime Meridian. At the moment I was on the west side of the world. I walked up and all of a sudden I was on the east. I started jumping from one side to the other like a two year old. How many times can you be standing on 0 degrees longitude? We then headed back toward the middle of Greenwich. As we were walking we saw a market. We walked through and I got a fruit kabob. It was tasty. Greenwich was fabulous.
Outside of London there is a small town called Greenwich. Greenwich is small, but it is on almost every physicists bucket list. Greenwich is the Prime Meridian of the world. The Prime Meridian separates east and west which makes it control time too. Many representatives from different cities got together in 1884 in D.C. and decided which city should be picked to be the Prime Meridian of the world. Out of all of them Greenwich was picked. One of the main reasons Greenwich was picked was because over 2/3 of the ship maps used Greenwich for the Prime Meridian. When we got there we looked for the signs that said The Royal Observatory. The Royal Observatory is where the big Prime Meridian part is. All around The Royal Observatory there is a beautiful park with lots and lots of dogs being walked. Right in the middle of the flat park there is a big hill that does not seem to really fit. On top of the hill sits the Royal Observatory. We went into a museum and saw lots of cool telescopes. Some were huge. We got to see a section of a 40-foot reflecting telescope that was used by William Herschel. He’s the guy that discovered Uranus! There were also lots of sundials and clocks. One clock used time with degrees instead of numbers, which made 12 o’clock equal -360. We walked outside onto a porch where there was a line going straight with a point going out. This was the exact line for the Prime Meridian. At the moment I was on the west side of the world. I walked up and all of a sudden I was on the east. I started jumping from one side to the other like a two year old. How many times can you be standing on 0 degrees longitude? We then headed back toward the middle of Greenwich. As we were walking we saw a market. We walked through and I got a fruit kabob. It was tasty. Greenwich was fabulous.
The Prime Meridian!?! Why are you such a geek? :) Just kidding. That is so cool how you jumped from one side of the world to the other but why did you say you were jumping like a two year old. Anybody would have done that. What kind of fruit was on the kabob?
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