China is actually not antipodal to the United States, so if someone in one country dug straight down through the center of the Earth they would not pop out in the other. That would be impossible, since they're both in the Northern Hemisphere.

If you dug a hole from anywhere in the lower 48 states straight through the center of the Earth, you'd actually come out… in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Starting in Alaska, you'd end up south of Africa just on the edge of Antarctica, and starting in Hawaii you'd pop out somewhere in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Conversely, depending where you started in China and dug straight down, you might end up in Argentina or Chile, but most likely you'd emerge in parts of the South Atlantic or South Pacific oceans on either side of the South American continent.

(all this provided, of course, traversing through the Earth's core doesn't kill you first 😉)

#science #sciencefacts #antipodal #unitedstates #china #indianocean