You’re standing at the baggage claim. The display has confirmed your flight number, the first suitcase emerges from the darkness, and slowly the stream of bags and carts begins. The conveyor belt is turning. And if you stop to think for a moment, you might notice it’s turning counterclockwise. Or is it? Maybe it was…
Australia is at the bottom. Every child who has ever seen a world map knows that. Europe is at the top, North America too, and down there on the right, below Asia, lies that large reddish continent that practically embodies “down.” But what does “down” actually mean when you live on a round planet in…
Here’s a number that seems impossible at first glance. From Berlin to the center of the Earth: about 6,371 kilometers. That’s the Earth’s mean radius—the distance from the ground beneath your feet to the molten core of our planet. From Berlin to New York: about 6,381 kilometers. The difference between “drilling halfway through the Earth”…