The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific.

Most tropical cyclones form on the side of the subtropical ridge closer to the equator, then move poleward past the ridge axis before recurving into the main belt of the Westerlies.

For example a group at MIT concluded that the planet Mesklin in Hal Clement's 1953 novel Mission of Gravity would have had a sharp edge at the equator, and a Florida high-school class calculated that in Larry Niven's 1970 novel Ringworld the topsoil would have slid into the seas in a few thousand years.

During the gradual process by which Homo erectus made a transition from furry to naked skin, their hair texture putatively changed gradually from Afro-textured hair or ' kinky ' ( i. e. tightly coiled ) to straight hair ( the condition of most mammals, including humanity's closest cousins — chimpanzees ) This argument is based on the principle that curly hair impedes the passage of UV light into the body relative to straight hair ( thus curly or coiled hair would be particularly advantageous for dark-skinned hominids living at the equator ).

This sets up a sheet of electric current in the E region which, with the horizontal magnetic field, forces ionization up into the F layer, concentrating at ± 20 degrees from the magnetic equator.

The gravitational tidal forces of the Moon and Sun apply torque to the equator, attempting to pull the equatorial bulge into the plane of the ecliptic, but instead causing it to precess.

A space elevator for Earth would consist of a cable fixed to the Earth's equator, reaching into space.

* The plane of the equator is the plane of the Earth's equator projected into space.

The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

The fundamental plane divides the celestial sphere into two equal hemispheres and defines the baseline for the vertical coordinates, analogous to the equator in the geographic coordinate system.

Stretches across 12 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean from the Arctic Circle to American Samoa below the equator and across the International Date Line, and into Asia.

Measurements of the acceleration due to gravity at the equator must also take into account the planet's rotation.

Near the equator, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is divided into the North Atlantic Ridge and the South Atlantic Ridge by the Romanche Trench, a narrow submarine trench with a maximum depth of 7, 758 m ( 25, 453 ft ), one of the deepest locations of the Atlantic Ocean.

In other words, it is a projection of the terrestrial equator out into space.

To this globe is fitted the movable horizon M, so as to turn upon the two strong wires proceeding from its east and west points to the globe, and entering the globe at the opposite points off its equator, which is a movable brass ring set into the globe in a groove all around its equator.

Thus the coordinate systems most used in astronomy need their own date-reference because the coordinate systems of that type are themselves in motion, e. g. by the precession of the equinoxes, nowadays often resolved into precessional components, separate precessions of the equator and of the ecliptic.

The islands north of the equator that had been seized from Germany in World War I and which were assigned to Japan as C-Class Mandates, namely the Marianas, Carolines, Marshall Islands, and several others do not figure into this project.

The rising temperatures at the equator then created a second split, into the northern and southern groups, preventing them from interbreeding.

They feature a small plastic ring around the " equator " of the target, which quickly vaporizes into a plasma when hit by the laser.

Both divide the ecliptic into a number of " signs " named after constellations, but while the sidereal system defines the signs based on the fixed stars, the tropical system defines it based on the position of vernal equinox ( i. e. the intersection of the ecliptic with the celestial equator ).

These jet streams form broad fronts at the equator, breaking into smaller cyclonic storms at high latitudes.

This forms a right-handed coordinate system with the z axis ( right hand thumb ) pointing from the Earth's center toward the North Pole and the x axis ( right hand index finger ) extending from Earth's center through the equator at the Prime Meridian.

Originally intended to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the Earth ′ s equator to the North Pole ( at sea level ), its definition has been periodically refined to reflect growing knowledge of metrology.

The other approach suggested defining the metre as one ten-millionth of the length of the Earth's meridian along a quadrant ; that is, the distance from the equator to the North Pole.

This portion of the meridian was to serve as the basis for the length of the half meridian, connecting the North Pole with the equator.

The gram was first introduced in 1795, with a definition based on the density of water ( so that at the temperature of melting ice, one cubic centimeter of water would have a mass of one gram ; while the meter at the time was defined as the 10, 000, 000th part of the distance from the Earth's equator to the North Pole ).

North of the equator and west of the International Date Line are the numerous small islands of Micronesia, including the Caroline Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands.

Seen from the equator the celestial North Pole ( boreios polos ) is a point on the horizon.

Situated in the northeastern portion of the Balkan Peninsula, the country is halfway between the equator and the North Pole and equidistant from the westernmost part of Europe — the Atlantic Coast — and the most easterly — the Ural Mountains.

Located in the northern and middle latitudes a of the Northern Hemisphere, most of Russia is much closer to the North Pole than to the equator.

Because its drainage basin includes areas both North and South of the equator, its flow is stable, as there is always at least one part of the river experiencing a rainy season.

* The sun will reach its highest point toward the South in the Northern Hemisphere and the North in the Southern Hemisphere ( in the direction of the equator )

Barbados is an Continental Island in the North Atlantic Ocean ; and is located at 13 ° 10 ' north of the equator, and 59 ° 32 ' west of the Prime Meridian.

The 45th parallel bisects the county, meaning it is half way between the North Pole and the equator.

Many of the world's wetlands are in temperate zones ( midway between the North or South Pole and the equator ).

* Highway signs denote that Gaylord rests on the 45th parallel line – halfway between the equator and the North Pole.

" They're within four miles of the 45th parallel which makes it halfway between the equator and the North Pole ", which added to its cachet.

The Marathon County Park Commission has posted a geographical marker which identifies the spot on which it sits ( 45 ° N ,- 90 ° W ) as the exact center of the northern half of the Western Hemisphere, meaning that it is a quarter of the way around the world from the Prime Meridian and halfway from the equator to the North Pole.

At the equator the two celestial poles are at the horizon and motion is counterclockwise ( i. e. to the left ) around the North Star and clockwise ( i. e. to the right ) around the southern celestial pole.

Rotation of a planet causes it to approximate an oblate ellipsoid / spheroid with a bulge at the equator and flattening at the North and South Poles, so that the equatorial radius is larger than the polar radius by approximately where the oblateness constant is

At geodetic latitude 48. 46791 … degrees ( e. g., Lèves, Alsace, France ), the radius R is 20000 / π ≈ 6, 366. 1977 …, namely the radius of a perfect sphere for which the meridian arc length from the equator to the North Pole is exactly 10000 km, the originally proposed definition of the meter.

It is straight down at the North Magnetic Pole and rotates upwards as the latitude decreases until it is horizontal () at the magnetic equator.