View source for Earth:Eastern Hemisphere

{{short description|Half of Earth which lies east of the prime meridian}}
[[File:Eastern Hemisphere LamAz.png|thumb|Eastern Hemisphere]]

The '''Eastern Hemisphere''' is the half of the [[Astronomy:Planet|planet]] [[Astronomy:Earth|Earth]] which is east of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, [[Place:London|London]], {{wipe|United Kingdom}}) and west of the [[Earth:180th meridian|antimeridian]] (which crosses the [[Earth:Pacific Ocean|Pacific Ocean]] and relatively little land from pole to pole). It is also used to refer to [[Earth:Afro-Eurasia|Afro-Eurasia]] ([[Earth:Africa|Africa]] and [[Earth:Eurasia|Eurasia]]) and [[Earth:Australia (continent)|Australia]], in contrast with  the [[Earth:Western Hemisphere|Western Hemisphere]], which includes mainly [[Earth:North America|North]] and [[Earth:South America|South America]]. The Eastern Hemisphere may also called the "'''Oriental Hemisphere'''", and may in addition be used in a [[Social:Cultural geography|cultural]] or [[Earth:Geopolitics|geopolitical]] sense as a synonym for "[[Earth:Old World|Old World]]."

== Geography ==
The almost perfect circle (the earth is an oblate <span lang="bem" dir="ltr">spheroid</span> that is wider around the equator), drawn with a line, demarcating the Eastern and Western Hemispheres must be an arbitrarily decided and published convention, unlike the [[Astronomy:Equator|Equator]] (an imaginary line encircling [[Astronomy:Earth|Earth]], equidistant from its [[Earth:Geographical pole|poles]]), which divides the [[Earth:Northern Hemisphere|Northern]] and [[Earth:Southern Hemisphere|Southern]] Hemispheres. The [[Earth:Prime meridian|prime meridian]] at 0° [[Earth:Longitude|longitude]] and the [[Earth:180th meridian|antimeridian]], at 180° longitude, are the conventionally accepted boundaries, since they divide eastern longitudes from western longitudes. This convention was established in 1884 at the International Meridian Conference held in [[Place:Washington, D.C.|Washington, D.C.]] where the [[Physics:Standard time|standard time]] concepts of Canadian railroad engineer Sir Sandford Fleming were adopted. The Hemispheres agreed do not correspond with exact continents. Portions of [[Place:Western Europe|Western Europe]], [[Place:West Africa|West Africa]], [[Earth:Oceania|Oceania]], and extreme northeastern {{wipe|Russia}} are in the Western Hemisphere, divorcing it from the continents which form the touchstone for most geopolitical constructs of "the East" and "the West".

Consequently, meridians of 20°W and the diametrically opposed 160°E are often used outside of matters of physics and navigation,<ref>Olson, Judy M.  "[http://www.gis.psu.edu/projection/chapter4.html Projecting the hemisphere] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814165725/http://www.gis.psu.edu/projection/chapter4.html |date=2007-08-14 }}", ch. 4 from ''[http://www.gis.psu.edu/projection/ Matching the map projection to the need]'', {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818200906/http://www.gis.psu.edu/projection/ |date=2007-08-18 }}; Robinson, Arthur H. & Snyder, John P., eds. 1997.  Bethesda, MD: Cartography and Geographic Information Society, American Congress on Surveying and Mapping.</ref><ref>"Eastern Hemisphere".  ''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary,'' 3rd ed.  2001.  Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, Inc., p. 340.</ref> which includes all of the European and African mainlands, but also includes a small portion of northeast [[Place:Greenland|Greenland]] (typically reckoned as part of [[Earth:North America|North America]]) and excludes more of eastern Russia and Oceania (e.g., [[Earth:New Zealand|New Zealand]]). Prior to the global adoption of standard time, numerous [[Earth:Prime meridian|prime meridian]]s were decreed by various countries where time was defined by local noon (thereby, local).

The centre of the Eastern Hemisphere is located in the [[Earth:Indian Ocean|Indian Ocean]] at the intersection of the equator and the 90th meridian east, 910 km west of Indonesia in the [[Earth:Ninety East Ridge|Ninety East Ridge]]. The nearest land is Simeulue Island at {{coord|2|35|N|96|05|E|display=inline}}.

The land mass of the Eastern Hemisphere is larger than that of the Western Hemisphere and has a wide variety of [[Earth:Habitat|habitat]]s.

== Countries, dependencies and other territories in the Eastern Hemisphere but not in Europe, Asia, Africa Oceania ==
The following countries and territories lie outside [[Earth:Europe|Europe]], [[Earth:Asia|Asia]], [[Earth:Africa|Africa]], and [[Earth:Oceania|Oceania]] yet are entirely, mostly, or partially within the Western Hemisphere:

{|
|-
|valign=top width=33%|

;<big>[[Earth:Americas|Americas]]</big>
;<small>Entirely</small>
* {{flag|Canada|size=23px}}
* {{flag|United States|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Mexico|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Guatemala|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Honduras|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Nicaragua|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Costa Rica|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Panama|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Colombia|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Ecuador|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Peru|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Chile|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Argentina|size=23px}}
* {{flag|Uruguay|size=23px}} 
* {{flag|Brazil|size=23px}} 

|}

== Demographics ==
82-88% of [[Biology:Human|human]]s live in the Eastern Hemisphere, and 18% in the [[Earth:Western Hemisphere|Western Hemisphere]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://brilliantmaps.com/human-hemisphere/ |title=How Much of Humanity is in Your Hemisphere? - Brilliant Maps |access-date=2016-10-27 |archive-date=2020-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116181042/https://brilliantmaps.com/human-hemisphere/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Earth:East Antarctica|East Antarctica]]
* [[Place:Eastern world|Eastern world]]
* [[Earth:Western Hemisphere|Western Hemisphere]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==

{{Regions of the world}}

[[Category:Hemispheres of Earth]]

{{Sourceattribution|Eastern Hemisphere}}