Two Strangers Team up Over Reddit To Make an “Earth Sandwich”

laser cut an earth sandwich to commemorate making a real one, link in comments
by
u/etinaude in
UnleashSpace

Have you ever wondered what is on the exact opposite side of the world from where you stand? People have long asked themselves this question, leading to the creation of tools to determine where you’d end up if you dug up a tunnel across the planet. Others, like a young man named Etienne Naude, have had a more whimsical approach to it. He set out to make an “Earth sandwich.”

The concept, first proposed by performance artist Ze Frank, is simple: line up two slices of bread, so they sit precisely—down to the millimeter—at the same time, on opposite ends of the planet. To achieve this, one must turn to antipodes, which are the places diametrically opposite to any spot on Earth. However, per World Atlas, only about 15% of the planet’s “territorial land” does not have a body of water on its antipode site, so luck also comes into play.

Naude’s home of Auckland, New Zealand, is one of these fortunate locations, having southern Spain on the other side of the world. Bored during a break in the early months of 2020, he asked among his friends and family if they had any European acquaintances who could help him with his mission. After an unproductive search, he turned to the Spain subreddit.

Angel Sierra, a chef from Spain, answered Naude’s plea. The pair then overcame a 12-hour time difference to arrange the exact location, the time, and even the kind of bread they would use. “We made sure to get the exact location with Google Maps, to get us within a few meters range, and then we used the actual image data on Google Maps to pinpoint ourselves even closer than that,” Naude told RNZ.

To make it extra special, Naude, then a computer science student, decorated 20 slices of white bread, burning an “Earth sandwich” design onto them with the “near top of the range laser cutter.” He then used one of the pieces for his side of the sandwich. Meanwhile, Sierra placed nine slices of bread on the ground, just to cover themselves in case their calculations were slightly off.

Considering the diameter of Earth is about 7,918 miles, this sandwich would be one big bite. Still, to Naude, who wanted to make this for years, it was a dream come true. “It’s amazing that we’ve actually been able to collaborate and do something like this at exact opposite points of the globe,” Naude added.

Since their success, people on the Earth Sandwich subreddit have tried to replicate their feat, although it seems to have been with little success. The World Atlas adds that the two largest antipodal areas inhabited by humankind are located in East Asia and South America, so if that piques your interest, there seems to be a lot of untapped sandwich potential there.

A young man named Etienne Naude set out to make an “Earth sandwich” with the help of someone on the opposite side of the world.

We made an earth sandwich! (bread on exact opposite points of the globe, facing the same way at the same time and the same kind of bread)
by
u/etinaude in
newzealand