For 131 years, the eastern and western hemispheres of the world have been divided by the Greenwich Meridian Line, but it turns out that it's been in the wrong place the whole time.
Thousands visit the Greenwich observatory every year to see the line that marks 0° longitude, but it has been discovered that the line is in fact a few feet off the mark.
To be precise, it's about 334 feet off the real line of pure meridian, placing it more or less directly along the Park Cafe in Greenwich, which can probably expect a bump in customer numbers as a result of the news coming out.
The reason for the line being in the wrong spot is to do with the basin of mercury used by scientists to calculate it back in the 19th century, which unfortunately didn't account for the curve in the earth.
Modern GPS technology however does, and a study in the Journal of Geodesy found the error. Lead author of the study Ken Seidelmann suggested that it's not the end of the world, as they can simply put another marker at the offset: "It could give a clear explanation for people who do come with a GPS receiver and see it's not right. It would show where GPS zero is. It's another tourist attraction".
Via Metro
