Null Island: The Busiest Place That Doesn't Exist
Thanks to http://www.audible.com/minuteearth for sponsoring this video. Thanks also to Tom Scott for helping write and narrate this video. Check out his amazing channel: https://www.youtube.com/Tom...
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In the Atlantic Ocean, about a thousand miles west of Africa, is Null Island. It's a busyplace: Thousands of people live there, millions of photos have been taken there, and occasionally,people teleport in for just a moment or two before disappearing to somewhere else.Or at least, that's what it looks like to a computer. Because if you actually set sailfor Null Island, you’d find nothing but deep blue ocean and a lonely weather buoy.Or boo-ey, if you’re American. There is one special thing you might notice: it’sat exactly zero degrees longitude and zero degrees latitude -- and that’s the key towhy computers think this particular patch of ocean is a busy place.Any big database, whether it's storing information about people, photos,...
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In the Atlantic Ocean, about a thousand miles west of Africa, is Null Island. It's a busyplace: Thousands of people live there, millions of photos have been taken there, and occasionally,people teleport in for just a moment or two before disappearing to somewhere else.Or at least, that's what it looks like to a computer. Because if you actually set sailfor Null Island, you’d find nothing but deep blue ocean and a lonely weather buoy.Or boo-ey, if you’re American. There is one special thing you might notice: it’sat exactly zero degrees longitude and zero degrees latitude -- and that’s the key towhy computers think this particular patch of ocean is a busy place.Any big database, whether it's storing information about people, photos,...
