Special Latitudes for Dummies

Earth's axial tilt and the seasons

When it comes to scientific topics, our staffers are united in the belief that answering a question should at least mention the rationale behind the answer. This is especially true if you're going to use more than 500 words to answer what is in reality a question that can be answered in less than one-tenth that many. That belief, however, never seemed to be acted upon by all the people with BA degrees in journalism (aka "communications"), English Lit, and creative writing at eHow.com. We think today's nominee, journalism grad Andrea Askins, should have included less padding and more explanation in "What Are the Four Special Parallels of Latitude?" at Sciencing.com.

The answer, part of which Askins managed to include in her 555 words, is that the four are the Antarctic Circle, Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, and Arctic Circle. No problems there. Where Andrea's padding went wonky, in our estimation, is in two ways. The first and most important is an explanation of why these four parallels exits.

It's simple: Earth's axis of (daily) rotation is tilted at 23.5° from the plane of its orbit. That means that, at different times of the year, the Sun's rays strike the planet at different angles instead of always coming from the same direction. Keep that 23.5 number in mind...

According to Askins, the four are

• "The Arctic Circle runs at 66 degrees 33 minutes¹ north latitude..."
• "The Tropic of Cancer runs at 23 degrees 30 minutes north latitude..."
• "Running at 23 degrees 30 minutes south latitude of the Equator [sic], the Tropic of Capricorn..."
• "The Antarctic Circle is the southernmost special parallel of latitude. It runs at 66 degrees 30 minutes south latitude..."

If you didn't catch it, there's that 23.5° number again. It's in there all four times because a latitude of 66 degrees, 30 minutes, is 23.5 degrees from the poles. 

The closest Askins could get to mentioning the science behind the four special latitudes was to wander into geography and rattle off lists of countries that the four latitudes cross. That is, of course, padding, amounting to 77 of the 500 words she needed to meet the the MWC². She managed to burn up another 99 words explaining when the "special events" – the summer and winter solstices and vernal and autumnal equinoxes³ – occur.

Such is the level of scientific literacy we've come to expect from the freelancers at eHow.com and its "daughter" niches (like Sciencing.com). That's one reason why we continue to call the eHow family "the mother lode of internet stupidification" and why some many Dumbass of the Day winners come from there... winners like Askins.

¹ Actually, it's an average of 66 degrees 30 minutes north latitude

² MWC: Demand Media's minimum word count for eHow posts

³ Although she never used the word "equinox," ignoring the events entirely...

SI - ASTRONOMY