Why Britain is the Center of the World
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 พ.ย. 2019
- It has to do with trains, map makers, and politics.
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whoops! I made a little error. I made it look like the North and South lines go up to 180 degrees which they don't. they go to 90 degrees north (North Pole) and 90 degree south (South Pole) sorry about that!
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Johnny Harris is a filmmaker and journalist. He currently is based in Washington, DC, reporting on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe. Johnny's visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways. He holds a BA in international relations from Brigham Young University and an MA in international peace and conflict resolution from American University.
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whoops! I made a little error. I made it look like the North and South poles go up to 180 degrees which they don't! they go to 90 degrees north (North Pole) and 90 degree south (South Pole) sorry about that!
You also wrote Columbia not Colombia lol
A rather monumental error mate ;). Nevertheless, sharp content and editing as always. Also, I never mentioned how I enjoyed witnessing a bit of your family life and having confirmed that traveling with children is as doable as you make it and in many ways enriching (for both parents and offspring). Thank you.
I was born on may 28th.
Also, the 180th meridian or the 180° longitude is common to both east and west. So you never suffix "E" or "W" to it in the maps.
If you end up in England, you should visit the South West; places like Dartmoor are almost untouched which is unusual for the UK. Also we speak pirate down here.
We’re the centre of the world because we said so
Judging by your name can we all just agree that Wales should be the center of the world... it should be the equator too because.... dragons.
That is the most British thing to say ever
I’m French and there will always be a Frenchman to stop you
@@raccoonmoustache I'm Welsh and I'll stop the french trust me.... right after I stop the English and have Cymru made into the earths center
@@MasterKiy Nah mate, we haven't had to threaten anyone with 'tea drowning' yet...
Colonizer: knock knock
me: who's there
Colonizer: Europe
Me: Europe who?
Colonizer: Europart of our colony
Europe used to ... Go find a map of the USA, they own a lot of islands in the pacific, and have bases all over the world
@@davidioanhedges don't take the joke too literally man....it's a good joke.
David Hedges the US had also colonized all of the Americas and Africa right?
@@davidioanhedges people like you ruin *OUR* HISTORY COMMUNITY
No, you're a poo
You have to admit, it's pretty convenient that the international date line goes through basically no inhabited land
yeah the power of a basically uninhabited island. all those countries to choose from and it comes to us. fu ckin diamond aint it! gotta piss someone off, us telling them what time it is.
Really makes it so that most of the world is awake during noon GMT
But the anti-meridian goes through Siberia!
The rest of the world: “Stop acting like you’re the centre of the universe Britain!”
Britain: “But I am the centre of the world!”
We say center. not centre
@@idiot20037 centre is the english spelling
We love being the centre
@@idiot20037 who is this "we"? in the UK we say centre
@@idiot20037 we dont say center, we say centre
You forgot the most important point. The International Date Line was falling in the Pacific Ocean if we chose Greenwich as 0 degree. And so, it won’t cause trouble to any major settlement. No country would experience different dates on their land. Date would change seemlessly without creating a ruckus in any country.
Problem is, there are plenty of countries in the Pacific
G60J60F80 Exactly. And that is why the IDL isn’t a straight line. It bends on multiple occasions to accommodate all the small island nations. See the video again and look at the IDL shape.
Ohhh interesting! That’s a super important point.
I mean you could have it falling in the Atlantic Ocean without causing much trouble. But that would mean approximately China would be at the centre of the world and those white dudes would have noped the fuck out of it.
@@greycap2382 lmaooo
World: “why is Britain the centre of the world?”
Britain: “because we said it is”
because everyone said it is
@@soldierbr8726 it rly isnt but ok
Hitler. "Und vy ist England not destroyed? Because I saved dem at Dunkirk, and then spared them by attacking Russland instead."
he Brutish Empire wasn't the biggest. That's a popular misconception based on ignorance and hypocrisy. The hypocrisy is in counting land but not waves, when the British admit seas count: "Hail Britannia! Britannia rules the waves!" Well, Iberia ruled more because Felipe II, the Spanish Emperor, shared no ocean with anyone except three seas with Turks (Med. Red & Persian Gulf) whereas the British never had an entire ocean to themselves, always having to share with the French and the Spanish and the Russians and others.
@@scintillam_dei Argument makes no sense and you don't even know the lyrics to Rule Brittania
I think you missed an important part of time history. The reason GB was so good at sea was due to John Harrison, an English watch maker that made a watch so accurate that the problem with longitude was solved. This made the maps produced in the U.K. more accurate than everyone else’s. This together with the growth of the British Empire helped cement this notion which was why the US had already been using Greenwich as the PM (and most others).
growth of the empire was the aftermath of being good at sea, not the other way round.
@@bruhbruh2290 that was my point
Yes it wasn't decided in Washington DC the navigation astrolobe or whatever it was called was invented in Greenwich. Maybe that American meeting was just BLAH BLAH
yeah yeah we all saw the Jay Foreman video
@@shallowgod5539 who is Jay Foreman?
The map being like that with the UK in the middle means that the edges of the map cut through the least amount of land possible which is handy.
Let's be honest here, this is also the most practical way to center a map, nobody wants to cut asia or america in half...
Well...in fact a lot of world maps in China are centered in the Pacific Ocean (roughly in line with Canberra) with the USA to the east and Europe to the west. It doesn't cut America in half, the divide just falls on the Atlantic ocean instead of the Pacific. Greenland is the only major landmass that gets split across the gap
Umm...I want to cut America in half
england #1 U.S #2
Dyerama Crafts but in this design nothing gets Cut in half, not even Greenland
Dyerama Crafts but he said that’s not practical 🤭
The inventor of the clock that allowed for accurate navigation East and West by the vertical lines of latitude was English, and so as a consequence the point of origin started in England.
England is still the biggest country in the therms of amount of inventions/ discoveries, scientifically and technology up today, and had the largest empire in the world
But that's not true.
@@theeternal6890 It is tho
"It goes through a little outskirts town called Greenwich." 😂 Love your videos Johnny! But if you lived in Greenwich as a young person these days, it would be considered relatively central, and certainly part of the city proper.
Greenwich was a small village when the Observatory was built, because as a small village away from the city, it had dark skies with little artificial light. Then the city grew round it and ruined the observation.
"Britain was just really good at ocean" - Johnny Harris 2019
China is better during that time
@@blum7076 I dont think that is true
@@blum7076 China 😂🤦♀️
@@blum7076 haha learn some history..
@@blum7076 I seem to remember China having issues with British gunboats sailing up their rivers.
A US president that nobody remembers. That sounds like a good guy!
Yeah, nothing bad to remember.
@@kele8559 So either bad guys or got assassinated to be remembered-
Not remembering Arthur isn't a problem, being of any decent age and not knowing who he was. ???
william henry harrison
The majority of Americans I'm sure don't remember more than two or three that occur that lived before their lifetime so you can't go by what American know because we are sorely lacking not only in what we know about our history but even having an interest in our history. I surprised my history teacher during high school because I was one of the few people who actually gave a shit.
The reasons I keep coming back to watch your videos is 1) cool and random topics 2) I like listening to you because you are natural teacher and story teller 3) it is easy to follow your logic as you lead viewers down a trail of crumbs 4) I can use your videos to teach a broad range of topics to my English language learning students in Belarus and Russia - as long as I slow the playback speed down to 0.75 cause, um, you speak pretty quickly for them to follow. Anyway, thank you, Johnny for doing a brilliant job on gathering an array of facts, graphics to explain them, keeping people focused and informed at the end.
if we have to go by the imaginary lines on the global map, Britain is not the center of the world, the Greenwich meridian passes through many countries in the world, including Spain, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Ghana...but the actual center of the world is where the equator meets the Greenwich meridian, that’s in the Gulf of Guinea, and the nearest country to that point is the west African country of Ghana 🇬🇭
World: “why is Britain the centre of the world?”
Britain: "Because we invented the modern world"
Britain: "Your welcome"
and Brexit delusions keep on giving
@@user-mg3xr9tz7mshhh there’s a good remoaner
Other countries: „you are not the center of the world!“
Britain: „actually...“
Time to invade
@@electro6202 the center of the world
@@CharllotteKatakuri wouldn't last 2 minuets
@@oMaGicKsv I’ll give it till the World Wars
Actually owo
I live in Greenwich it is not an outskirts town it’s a normal busy borough in South East London it’s like saying the Bronx is an outskirts town in New York
@@dafydd9375 more people than your comment
I'm pretty sure he meant it was an outskirts town at the time of the vote.
I live in the borough too, and I have to agree with you.
outskirts doesn’t mean not busy, it means outside of the main city
@@ThePsychicProject more people see the first comment
I think this is one of the best video I have seen GMT topic and must a watch for all kids/adults studying geography subject. How easily you have explained these complicated topics. It at times becomes difficult to understand when you just read and read instead watch and learn. Thanks a lot to you ! Wish you the best for all future assignments.
Absolutely love the way you explain things.. you make complex things easy to understand 👏 Have been binge watching your videos, and I cannot stop!
GHANA IS THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Johnny Harris STOP SPEAKING LIES AND PROPAGANDA.
GHANA IS AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. ALL YOU PEOPLE IN THIS COMMENTS ARE BRAINWASHED. WHEN GOD YAHSHUA COMES BACK EVERYONE WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. YOU EUROPEANS AND WESTERNERS, EASTERNERS, SOUTH, LOVE TO WHITEWASH THE WORD OF GOD YAHWEH. YOU TAKE THE HOLY BIBLE AND WHITEWASH IT.
WHEN YAHSHUA COMES BACK, YOU WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH.
you find it complex that a map was centered where it's made?
Let’s cut it short: it’s the centre because we put the line there
Kaiser Haux - literally just commented the same thing 😂
And has the line moved?no , i think the line is happy to be there .
@@jackwilliams6604 I think the line would have to BE moved, and the world doesn't seem that desperate to do that.
Deez nutz are centered on your chin
It's also very practical, because when you look at map it would be really weird, if you had center of map in the middle of Asia and one part of America would be western hemisphere, and one part would be eastern hemisphere... Of course precise choice of London is obviously biased but the approximate choice of 0 point was certainly not just based of British dominance.
Johnny: I'm gonna go to the Royal Observatory next year.
2020: *laughs in Coronavirus*
J Andrew copyright Canadian Operator, you plagiarised his comment, reported
Exactly what I thought when he said it lol
**Reported**
@@d.c.8828 Bruh I was gonna comment the same thing but then I saw someone beat me to it.
Lol
I actually know this one! Bear with me because there are a lot of interesting factors leading to the prime meridian.
Sailors used to sail by latitude only as you could only use the stars to determine latitude - this led to of the disaster of the Isles of Scilly (one of the greatest British naval distasters in history). After this disaster (which was known to be a direct result of sailing via Latitude only), Royalty created a competition with a large monetary prize for anybody who could create an accurate time keeping device.
There were already time keepers but they were typically poor which is unacceptable in terms of tracking your position on the globe - this competition saw sailors take various devices on massive voyages to test their accuracy in the salt water etc and returrn with proof of an accurate seaworthy time keeper.
John Harrison won this competition to create an accurate timekeeping device (for which he was apparently never fully paid) and ended up creating the modern watch as we know it.
And accurate watches at that. These "watches" were used in conjunction with an arbitrary point - the Greenwich "meridian" to determine Longitude and enabled sailors to travel without sounding and with precision never seen before. The fact that Britain is the center is due to the genius of our creations - without which travelling the world was much more about guess work. Pretty amazing history
It's less about Britain saying "we claim the center of the Earth!" and more about Britain saying "we invented the method to determine your longitude at all". Other countries could of course disagree and use their own system, which would lead to their own issues. They agreed to go along with our innovation because it made sense, was universal and was appropriately lined up with the worlds greatest naval center.
Definitely look into it more would make a great video! would also inform a ton of people about history looking at the comments. It saddens me a little to think this history is lost, most people who know are history buffs when I believe it's important enough to be common knowledge.
Thanks for making me a little smarter every video I watch. By far one of the most entertaining people I watch across all media platforms
I love how I'm entertained and brain trained at the same time
that's a great synonym to say learning lmao
Moises Martinez Cortez not everyone likes learning
@@moisesmartinezcortez1860 woah, don't try to force lessons on me, keep this piece of entertaining and factual media how it is, StUpId MiLlEnNiAls
GHANA IS THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Johnny Harris STOP SPEAKING LIES AND PROPAGANDA.
GHANA IS AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. ALL YOU PEOPLE IN THIS COMMENTS ARE BRAINWASHED. WHEN GOD YAHSHUA COMES BACK EVERYONE WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. YOU EUROPEANS AND WESTERNERS, EASTERNERS, SOUTH, LOVE TO WHITEWASH THE WORD OF GOD YAHWEH. YOU TAKE THE HOLY BIBLE AND WHITEWASH IT.
WHEN YAHSHUA COMES BACK, YOU WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. n.
You omitted the whole story of developing an accurate method of measuring longitude. In the early 1700s an Englishman John Harrison responding to a competition by the British Government designed a clock that was accurate enough to keep time to Greenwich Mean Time within 2 minutes in the harsh conditions at sea. This enabled ships to calculate their local time and compare it to an accurate GMT to determine an accurate longitude measurement. Which I believe is why 100 years later they all decided to use GMT as it was already the de facto point of measurement. The whole story is probably worth a video of its own.
We just couldn't sit around waiting for someone else to figure it out. So we did it and it was accepted .it's too late now how change things . Tuff
Yep, i pointed that out too!
John harisson was actually time traveller.
There was a book. Just read it. He made 3 clocks the last a pocket type watch the other two still operate.
Here you go th-cam.com/video/T-g27KS0yiY/w-d-xo.html
Awesome content! I am very interested in Geography too and would be great to see more videos from you :)
if we have to go by the imaginary lines on the global map, Britain is not the center of the world, the Greenwich meridian passes through many countries in the world, including Spain, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Ghana...but the actual center of the world is where the equator meets the Greenwich meridian, that’s in the Gulf of Guinea, and the nearest country to that point is the west African country of Ghana 🇬🇭
It makes me so happy that you pronounced Greenwich correctly.
I don't think I've ever heard an American mispronounce it. They have a Greenwich in Connecticut (and possibly elsewhere), which is pronounced the same way. They have exposure to the word.
No, he didn't... As someone that was born in Greenwich, London UK, and still lives here (the view from General Wolf has changed so so much in my life!)... it's pronounced Grin-ij.
This whole Gren-itch business grates on us locals.
The whole bloody world gets it wrong! 😞
Imagine calling Greenwich a little outskirts town
ITS IN LONDON MATE
Only to Southies. Northies be like, "oh you have a tube line?"
greenwich is still like a small village
@@alanssnack1192 it's not a village. I live in Greenwich btw
It was a little outskirts town at the time, before London became the all-devouring monstrosity it's become.
@@popz5337 if u live in greewich, then do you now that ship that burnt down?
I'd say Greenwich is part of London, not an outskirt, but hey ho
but in the 1800s when they decided on Greenwich it would have been the outskirts
@@mileshicks8996 Actually, it's a high point that you can see from the old docklands in london, which is why it was chosen.
There's a ball on top of a pole at the Greenwich observatory and at midday it drops so ships at the docks can calibrate their time before setting sale.
It's also in the middle of London, I mean, it's right on the river but sure... it's "on the outskirts"
@@nonegiven2830 The middle of London is the city, and Greenwich is close to five miles from there.
(St Paul's to the Observatory.)
@@TryptychUK The city of London is a city in a city, in a country in a country.
It's like nesting dolls
@@nonegiven2830 The city of London still remains the heart of what is now a far bigger metropolis. It is also not really a county, as it has absorbed Middlesex and other outlying regions.
Your videos are really well made, thanks from someone watching in royal borough of Greenwich near the observatory.
As historical enemy, Spain and France also touches the 0° line so we're considered the center too 🧐
Is probably why they let the issue go and at the committee they were like, "Well at least the line touches us"🤷♂️🤷♂️
Nice try haha
@@olg06 No true. Around that time France and Spain weren’t even relevant
The centre of the world is Ghana not britain
@@Lil_Elegant possibly
"Outskirts Town called Greenwich"... Oh my, Greenwich is very much London haha
Ah, but at the time, it was on the "outskirts" of Victorian London.
stischer47 true but now you can't see any countryside from Greenwich as it is far inside Greater London.
U mean Outskirt of Victorian London. By 1884 ..?
Well.... Like Nanterre is "very much" Paris.
Pedro Caio many people would disagree, Paris isn’t a city about size. It’s incredibly dense.
You’re the first American I’ve ever heard pronounce Greenwich right
Props to him but seriously though, why the heck is it spelled...that but pronounced Gree-nitch
Same goes to Worcestershire sauce and a bunch of other words, like y'all British people man I swear.
@@juliansenfr silent letters and different way British people pronounce different sounds I think also I think they like to shorten the way things are said
There's a Greenwich Village in NYC.
Most Americans know how to say Greenwich correctly...
@@juliansenfr because we made up the language and we'll pronounce things how we want :)
I thoroughly enjoyed the video, I'm not a map or time nerd, but I couldn't stop watching.❤
Well done, and thank you.
You can visit the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, it's on a hill in a park with beautiful views of east London. Greenwich itself is a tourist-packed but quite charming little area within London. It's not really in the outskirts, it's more in a residential-ish area, it's just London is a gigantic city so it's not close to any of the very central things.
If you pay to enter the observatory (it's now a museum) you can stand on the prime meridian on the floor, it comes out of this weird building which is "officially" where it is. There's loads of cool stuff in the museum about time and space, including the chronometers which solved the Longitude Problem (a fascinating topic in itself).
The power of the British Empire, when geographical locations in relation to the UK like the Middle East and the Far East are still being used.
@Johnson Taylor Yeah. Power.
@EDU VELANDIA Don't be silly. The Americas was known about and travelled to and fro in the 1600s and the terms Middle East and Far East were terms used in the mid 1800s.
@EDU VELANDIA I'm fully aware of where the naming of America stems from. I answered your question in relation to chronology.
@@africareigns And before that. Didn't the Vikings travel to America way way before the 1600"s.
@@angelau1194 Yes they did. Not many people know that. I guess they don't want it in the school curriculum.
Greenwich, another big reason it was chosen, ordered the first acurate chronometer that can be used at sea. At first it was only available to the navy but later to the merchant fleet. Since all ships going on long voyages had to go to London(greenwich) to get the chronometer checked and since they were the first to have acurate chronometers it would be natural to choose them for the prime meridian.
Glad to hear someone that knows what they are taking about
it kinda seems like almost no research went into this video
@@mitch9237 yeah, I think you're right there
@@mitch9237 No but he did manage to make a dig at white people (SJW and white guilt) If we were waiting for Kunte Kinte to Circumnavigate and Map the Globe we would still be waiting.
Andrew Wilson Thanks for taking a dig at black people by referring to them at kunte kinte, just because a white American guy took a dig at how a group of white guys decide everything. Go be racist irl and see if u don’t lose ur teeth
If you want a nice day out go and stand on the prime meridian as it goes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. You can see Harrison's marine chronometers there too which were possibly the most significant invention of their time regarding navigation across oceans, allowing the world to develop with far, far fewer shipwrecks and effectively normalising the seas for commerce and travel.
Funnily enough if you try to measure the prime meridian via GPS ( a proper accurate GPS not yourr phone) the meridian line at the observatory is wrong by about 100ft. Cant remember why but Tom Scott had a video on it
@@BobGnarley. not bad for something of its time
Oh I love this vid. Actually I just realized my science education on time zones is now almost zilch. 😂 And now I know more! Good job! 👍
How abt a new video to show time zones vertically and not just horizontally?
If Britain truly was the center of the world, you’d be spelling it “centre” instead. ;)
Soon we'll all be spelling it 中央
@@coletrain5667 what why
pixel eb it’s a joke... means center in chinese so he/she’s saying China will be the center of the world soon
well i think china literally means "middle kingdom" 😬
it is spelled that way just that you and your nation can't do it right. its called English for a reason. ''mom'' you bloody simpletons. The British invented the fist digital computer even though it weighed a ton and the internet. so by logic dictation England/Britain should be the basis for it own damn language on writing software.
Editing is gold level at this channel...
Vox technology.
ikr
Ikr!!
I hope he has someone to do his animations bc he’s already so freakin talented at film making
apart from the audio
Yoo happy birthday bro as I was watching the video I noticed it is may 28th
Great videos you make. Thanks!
10:30 "I'm gonna' go to the Royal Observatory this year, next year."
Oh how innocent he was....
Is it even still there?
@@johndododoe1411 why wouldn't it be?
@@johndododoe1411 here in the UK, we DO history...... Of course it's there.
@@johndododoe1411 look at the video published date
@@realtwovo Look it up.
Britain: So why are we doing this?
Other Countries: Well, we figured it would save us all a lot of trouble if we chose a single line on which to set our clocks.
Britain: You know, we have such a line in Greenwich, at the Royal Observatory.
Other Countries: Yes, well. The other reason was to reconcile timetables for trains.
Britain: You know, we invented the locomotive, and the rail networks, and the bridges over which the train travels...
Other Countries: Would you like to be the center of...
Britain: ... _yes please!_ _Jolly good!_
Ya I saw the line when we went on a science trip ,astronomy, I just dident understand what it was for.....
that was V fun to read in a british accent
Yes Just yes
I don’t know where that wierd stereotype of how British people talk started but it’s so far from how we talk
@@coalcoal7320 Google: "received pronunciation" 😊
Making this video without crediting John Harrison for making the measurement of longitude possible is an achievement in itself considering that was arguably the reason Greenwich was chosen over just the British empire
Greenwich was chosen because it is the site of the Royal Observatory. In the 18th Century they built a transit telescope to measure the time at which particular stars crossed the N-S alignment on specific days of the year. That data table and thus the site of the telescope defined the meridian. When the conference was called that was the most complete data set so it made sense to choose Greenwich. Harrison made a clock that could determine the difference between local time and a reference time reliably over a long time at sea and on journeys and hence your longitudinal deviation from that reference point. When the transit telescope was built the intention was to create a set of data that could be used to obtain Greenwich time from astronomical observations in the end because Harrison was successful it was used instead to accurately fix a zero point. The reason that the zero line has now drifted a little is that time is now defined by vibration of caesium atoms not by the movement of the stars.
wow thank you so much for this, i love this type of useful education
👁👄👁 me watching this and living in Greenwich seeing my school and house on the screen
Hehe 👀
@@brandonbrill1685 ?
What color is your house
I literally live 5 minutes away from you.
lol i live in elephant and castle
Of course France kept making their own maps after the decision 🤣😂
France has a bigger land mass, their geography is best of of Europe in my opinion & I’m American. Little britain is a tiny island you need a freaking magnifying class.
@@cheerbozz a tiny island that conquered half the globe
@@UKchronics That’s a big lie perpetuated by insecure British people, britain didn’t rule nothing I’m Canadian saying this. USA, Canada are all Frontier societies where various ethnic people settled so has nothing to do with britain. In the age of Empires, Britain had to share everything with France, Spain & now other countries like USA have left Britain in the dust ! So yes britain is nothing but a small island.
@@nochatter7134 you are the one who sounds insecure 😂 Britain had the largest empire in history. Pretty impressive for a tiny island..
@@UKchronics You lack sufficient capacity to process critical thought. I said britain shared everything with France, Spain back then & now USA that is a younger country surpassed them in power by leaps and bounds that britain is reduced to no relevance. These are facts. Britain never had power. You’re measuring power by land but the lands britain had were all DISSOLUTE either dry & arctic tundra i.e. Canada & australia. If any country had or has good lands it was Spain & USA hands down. Regardless none of those countries were ever controlled by britain.
This is amazing info. Thank you
Please make a video on why the start of a new day is 12 midnight . I know it could be broken down in a few simple sentence but I would love your 10-20 minute breakdown .
Johnny Harris is literally making Vox videos in his free time. Keep up this amazing work!!
I love chilli dogs with lean
I thought my ex gf was the centre of the world? Huh, guess you learn something new everyday.
Sal Hussain
You sir, are a prophet.
hilarious
Cringy
feminist Queen shut up
feminist Queen Indeed
Time traveler: *sneezes*
Johnny: Why Madagascar is the centre of the earth?
This all can be summarized to the fact that, at the time the first proper world maps were created, The British Empire and other european powers were around their peak strenght - everything revolved around them. obviously they put themselves in the center when THEY made the maps, and later exported them to other parts of the empire.
also the modern time zones were though of in the UK - thats why the +0 timezone is in the UK, precisely in Greenwich (Greenwich Mean Time - GMT)
if lets say, the USA was as strong as it is today when the maps were invented, it would not be unreasonable to think the +0 would cross trough either Washington D.C, or wherever it was though of first
Britain is the center because God says so
more than that, an Englishman invented the first travelling clock which would stay true on the high seas, which meant the Royal Navy were the only ones with the equipment to accurately measure latitude & longitude, so Britain effectively invented world time
@@celtspeaksgoth7251that’s how we do it 💪🏻🇬🇧
TL;DR: Britain invented everything, Britain invaded everything, we owned the whole shop, we invented time, God Save The Queen
To be fair, we did invent the computer, which is more than I can say for the rest of them NOOBS
Meters, grams, liters
@@lingy69 we invented zero. Well that escalated quickly.
Atharva Mote and we invaded you so we basically invented zero
_suuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrre_
Ill save you 15 minutes:
Because they were the best at map making and had the best navy in the 1800's when it was decided by a bunch of representatives from countries in Washington.
extra reason for nerds:
Also cause the first chronometer was made in uk which meant all ships had to travel to the uk to correct their longitude
Also cause the first chronometer was made in uk which meant all ships had to travel to the uk to correct their longitude
Thanks.LOL
Don’t for get the kilogram. That all must keep the same throughout the world. From time to time 12 kilograms travel to retune to match the British kilogram.
@@kaboomwinn4026 its french
Well yes but actually no it has nothing to do with Washington at all it is all to do with the amount of power England had at that time and the fact that America was still a buisness and a place for a fresh start
If we’re going to have a system of coordinates, there has to be a center line somewhere. Since the Brits figured it out, they got to pick it. Seems reasonable to me.
Just started watching your videos very impressed I am
FASCINATING!! I love this kind of stuff! I'm actually glad Britain ended up zero cause the international date line is now in the middle of the ocean where it impacts the least amount of people. That would be nuts if it just ran down the middle of Australia or something.
Firstly, one of the main reasons London was chosen was to avoid that very reason. And secondly, the countries that are impacted just stick to being on one side; hence the messiness
You people opened my eyes , seriously . English's my 2nd language so your comments intrigued me enough to translate a few words lol i feel you helped me realize how part of our world works .. i must ve really missed dat geography class back in school . Thx ya
This is how good education should look like: you learn a story and then it’s way easier to fill it with dry facts.
Thanks, Johnny!
No mention of John Harris’ marine clock for navigating the oceans!
I know this was three years ago; however, you need to go back further in time to 1761 when the marine chronometer was invented (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_chronometer). Before then navigation at sea (longitude by time, latitude was by a sextant) was very hit-and-miss, but with the invention of this device British ships could navigate more accurately than any other country. Apart from the British Empire and the huge navy, this is one of the main reasons that Britain was seen to be a reference point for time because it could be accurately measured.
Might have saved 15 minutes by saying "Because of the British Empire."
- _"We still remember, we who dwell_
_in these far lands, beyond the quagmire_
_the glory of the British Empire._
@The MI6 lol I was bout to say the same thing
@The MI6
Oh yeah. I forgot to add that one.
Hear hear, Rule Britannia!
*BUT WINGED HUSARS ARE STILL THE BEST*
Gigidy
In China literally all the maps are centred around China.
locksleynet well that is common with local maps however, this video touches upon the fact that England is the 0 point.
@@Haticesahin70 in a few countries, english is the language franco
@@fortunenese1668 lingua franca
中国 - Land in the center
@@Haticesahin70 around Beijing
Dude!!! What a great video!
Thank you for the information. You are the best
Low key wish Johnny could go to the international space station, see the earth from space and make an awesome video out of it - whatever topic it may be. Bet that will be super awesome.
Ooh, well who knows? Maybe we can make it happen, somehow?
imagine how that meet went
Domnican Republic: no
Everyone Else: damn.. shit just got serious
let's give money to Haiti, so we can divide and rule that Hispaniola thing
In fact it was probably more like
Dominican Republic: no
Everyone else: damn...shut the fuck up Dominican Republic! No one cares what you think😡
Dominican here! During the Chester Arthur government in US my country's name was already Dominican Republic. Nice to hear you mentioned my country in one of your videos because I love them.
Johnny Harris the king of Explainers. This was fun to watch. Thanks for this amazing video.
GHANA IS THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Johnny Harris STOP SPEAKING LIES AND PROPAGANDA.
GHANA IS AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. ALL YOU PEOPLE IN THIS COMMENTS ARE BRAINWASHED. WHEN GOD YAHSHUA COMES BACK EVERYONE WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. YOU EUROPEANS AND WESTERNERS, EASTERNERS, SOUTH, LOVE TO WHITEWASH THE WORD OF GOD YAHWEH. YOU TAKE THE HOLY BIBLE AND WHITEWASH IT.
WHEN YAHSHUA COMES BACK, YOU WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. n.
London probably chosen as John Harrison was British and invented the sea clock to determine longitude correctly while at sea.
Yes this! The video made no mention of the longitude problem and John Harrison's excellent work. If you go the Royal Observatory some of his clocks are on display. ...read the book "Longitude" be Dava Sobell. Maybe a topic for another video!
Also the whole concept of a world standard and time zones was created by a scotsman ie British.. so if we came up with the idea and the methods, we get to put that zero wherever the fk we want lol.
Good man!
Am I the only person that noticed that “Congo” is still called Zaire on his map.
I do remember making Zaire in the maps some 8 years ago
And Sudan is still one
=) , I still have my map that my parents bought me in 1990. It had the Soviet Union, Zaire and unified Sudan, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia on it.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the work that was great
Honestly the map just looks the best like that, theres only 2 ways to fit all the continents cleanly
it's true
The only way this looks clean because we are used to
@@hisenberg020 it looks clean because you have the Atlantic Ocean in the middle, instead of the pacific which will push everything apart. Because you want the countries together in a smaller area.
The Atlantic Ocean is generally a lot narrower than the pacific, which takes up almost half of the world
The real reason seems to be that, if the prime meridian is over Brittan, then the international dateline goes through nothingness in the pacific. Which is ideal. I don’t know why he didn’t mention that as a reason.
I'm surprised there was no mention of John Harrison and his marine chronometer. He solved the longitude problem, and made accurate navigation at sea possible for the first time. This almost certainly strengthened the case for Greenwich being the prime meridian.
John Smith why does it matter if hes white😂
The Greeks invented longitude/latitude why mention him & not mention the Greeks also.
@@cheerbozz because it was his timepiece that made the difference.
2019: Britain is the center of the world
1921: Britain is the world
you are best at telling storys and making them easy to understand ,
I’m high as hell and have no idea why I’m even watching this but it’s a nice video
Lmao
Same! x
Really interesting video Johnny! As a suggestion for borders (or as a personal video) you should cover “the Stans” in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan etc) and how their borders are arbitrary lines created by Stalin to instil tension in the region. Learning about it in one of my modules and I’m finding it really interesting!
GHANA IS THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Johnny Harris STOP SPEAKING LIES AND PROPAGANDA.
GHANA IS AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. ALL YOU PEOPLE IN THIS COMMENTS ARE BRAINWASHED. WHEN GOD YAHSHUA COMES BACK EVERYONE WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. YOU EUROPEANS AND WESTERNERS, EASTERNERS, SOUTH, LOVE TO WHITEWASH THE WORD OF GOD YAHWEH. YOU TAKE THE HOLY BIBLE AND WHITEWASH IT.
WHEN YAHSHUA COMES BACK, YOU WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. n.
wait your birthday is May 28th? mine too! I haven't been watching your videos for very long but this minor fact definitely makes me want to watch more :)
In 1884 the Greenwich Meridian was recommended as the Prime Meridian of the World.
There were two main reasons for this. The first was that the USA had already chosen Greenwich as the basis for its own national time zone system. The second was that in the late 19th century, 72% of the world's commerce depended on sea-charts which used Greenwich as the Prime Meridian.
The recommendation was based on the argument that naming Greenwich as Longitude 0º would be of advantage to the largest number of people.
I flew from Australia to Hawaii and felt like I was a time traveller... mental
I flew from England 2019 and landed in Nepal 🇳🇵
And the year was 2076 in Nepal 🇳🇵, that’s time travel my good friends 🙏
I was taught that the Greenwhich Meridian was set by the British Navy centuries before , and ships captains set their timepieces by it . With this they only needed to check the declination of the sun and compare it to the time linked to Greenwhich and they could tell exactly their easterly or westerly position . It was kept a top secret and it was a major reason why Britain did come to rule the waves and become the dominant world power - brains defeated brawn .
You need to dive deeper as this was over simplified. A bit more history on the Royal Observatory, the Airy Transit Circle, the quest for Longitude and John Harrison’s Sea Clock. And definitely visit the Royal Observatory and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Funny that on the list at 5:30 Pittsburgh Pa is spelled without the H.
In 1891 the United States Board on Geographic Names adopted thirteen general principles to be used in standardizing place names, one of which was that place names ending in -burgh should drop the final -h. At this time the city's name was rendered "Pittsburg."
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, University of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange (amongst others) all refused to drop the H.
Responding to mounting pressure, the Board reversed the decision on July 19, 1911, and the Pittsburgh spelling was restored after 20 years of contention.
Hey my country is the middle too 🙋🏽♀️😂🇬🇭🇬🇭🇬🇭🇬🇭. Geography was my fav course by the day and just stubble on your page with the McDonald’s video. Great job!!👍🏽
The prime meridian goes through my garden
My Mum's had 3 kids and labour combined between the three of us totals less than one hour. Dad tried to get her to the hospital with me but he ended up pulling into the car park by General Wolfe and I was born in the car. It's always been fun having so many people talk about where I was born.
How do you mow your lawn, do you push the meridian onto your patio and pull it back in to place when you've finished?
@@mikeede49 I get my brother to pull it over me while I go underneath
So do get an extra 24 hours of bloom on your Daiseys .
Happy Birthday!!! 😄
Great thanks really enjoyable and interesting, took me back to schooldays when I was first introduced to these concepts. I really liked the idea of Britain/Greenwich being the centre of the world.
Lmfao Greenwich is not an outskirts town. Not even Croydon is consid....nevermind, getting to Croydon is a human migration
well, London has not really definite borders :P what DOES have definite borders is the City of London, which it is on the outskirts of :P But e.g. Westminster which is basically considered London by everyone at all, is that too xD
@@LaPingvino you're right, there is not definite border. Some day zone 6 is the border, some say the M25, some say if you have a local underground station, some say if your post code isn't N, E, SE, SW, W or NW.
I personally say anywhere north of Camden, anywhere west of Shepherds bush, anywhere south of Clapham or anywhere east of Stratford is no longer London
@@user-ei7ed6zy9k Basically following the TfL map. I think south of Clapham is debatable though, because TfL is mostly not so much there because there are many good train connections...
ah you already mentioned zones and underground stations :P
Hannad Osman EN? RO? Postcodes? It’s the M25.
2:03 Small mistake - Latitude lines only go up to 90° North and 90° South. Not 180° as mentioned in the video.
Lol... doh!
You would have thought that if he's staring at it all day, then does a video about the lines on it, he would... check the numbers? Does he not know even approximately what his latitude is, or that of New York, London, Toyko? Mindboggling. I even have the website 36latitude.com because... it's the coolest latitude, generally.
GHANA IS THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. Johnny Harris STOP SPEAKING LIES AND PROPAGANDA.
GHANA IS AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD. ALL YOU PEOPLE IN THIS COMMENTS ARE BRAINWASHED. WHEN GOD YAHSHUA COMES BACK EVERYONE WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH. YOU EUROPEANS AND WESTERNERS, EASTERNERS, SOUTH, LOVE TO WHITEWASH THE WORD OF GOD YAHWEH. YOU TAKE THE HOLY BIBLE AND WHITEWASH IT.
WHEN YAHSHUA COMES BACK, YOU WILL SEE AND CONFESS THE TRUTH.
read the pinned comment
I just toured the royal observatory at Greenwich this week. One key point missed in this video is the fact that it’s the British who attempted to solve navigation issue at sea - to five out the exact longitude while at sea. They built the royal observatory for that. If they built the observatory west of London on a different hill, the prime meridian would have been at a different location. Or if the French built an observatory to solve that problem in Paris, the prime meridian will likely be in Paris.
another video gem! Enjoyed the story. And of course Newfoundland has a half hour time zone. As a Canadian that comes with many eye rolls. You will enjoy Greenwich. Maybe a 22 birthday gift on the 28th.
10:30 "I'm going to go to the royal observatory next year"
*2020 intensifies*
It fascinates me everytime I walk on that gold line in Greenwich
I love seeing that map of my native lands. Orygun you are the most beautiful.
And this is why the UK rightfully so has the greatest time travel show in the world, Doctor Who. 😂