Talk:Southern Hemisphere/Archive 1

Constalitisation
An anonymous editor added the statement that In the north of England, the Southern Hemisphere is known as the 'constalitisation'. I'm not convinced that's true, and even if it is, the word alone is arguably not relevant to the article. I raised the same issue at Talk:Cumbrian dialect.

I'm removing the claim, but if anyone has verifiable evidence for the word, feel free to add it back. -- Wmahan. 06:06, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm surprised that you do not know this, but the phrase comes from an old English folk tale about a hero who journeys below the equator...although the term equator wasnt actually used. Please reinstitute the note. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.108.131.244 (talk • contribs) 05:20, 10 May 2006
 * I've yet to see any evidence for the word, other than your edits to articles like Cumbrian dialect, Lancashire, and English folklore. But if you can provide a verifiable source, I'll be happy to admit I'm wrong and reinstate the edit. -- Wmahan. 21:50, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

How much of the Earth's total land area is in the Southern Hemisphere?
This article should provide an answer for that question, but doesn't. Peter G Werner 00:35, 20 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I think both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere articles should also say what portion of the hemisphere is water.--Jeff79 21:44, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 


 * Southern Hemisphere → southern hemisphere —(Discuss)— While renditions in both lower and upper case are common, and in the absence of any other authority, the Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary both indicate lower case (southern hemsiphere), with the latter also noting that it is often capitalised. Moving this article would also render it consistent with all other hemispheric articles (northern hemisphere, western hemisphere, eastern hemisphere), which have recently been edited (and to which references have been added) to reflect the change in rendition/capitalisation.  —Quizimodo 17:58, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Support, as nominator. Quizimodo 18:13, 18 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Strongly Oppose These are proper names, and should be capitalized. The "recent moves" and edits are by the nominator, and should be reversed. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 21:37, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Support (for Southern hemisphere rather than southern hemisphere), since it is not a proper name. DAJF 01:09, 19 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Oppose. Although the current first sentence ("The southern hemisphere is the half of a planet's surface...") is correctly not capitalised, the article is about Earth's Southern Hemisphere and not southern hemispheres in general.  and speaking of, what's the aversion to majuscules at wikipedia anyway?  i can see slovenian or polish wikipedia looking like this but capitals create a nice contrast for faster and easier reading.  is it too teutonic or something? —   ajaxsmack   05:03, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment The entries in the above two reputable volumes are also clearly about Earth's hemispheres, and render them first as minuscules. Quizimodo 06:20, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Oppose - I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with my below comment. I have reread WP:NAME and feel now that the name change is incorrect. -- Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor  ( tαlk ) 02:18, 20 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Oppose this is not wiktionary, why should the first letter not be capitalized? 132.205.44.5 22:17, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Support ("Southern hemisphere" in the actual title, of course)  The Canadian Oxford Dictionary's entries and examples for both "hemisphere" and "southern hemisphere" support this usage.  Mentions of the earth's unnamed hemispheres are not proper nouns, any more than a reference to "the polar continent" or "the largest ocean".  The term does also refer to a sector of the celestial sphere, as well as hemispheres of other planetary bodies. —Michael Z. 2007-08-20 22:34 Z 


 * I think AjaxSmack made the best point so far: This article is about Earth's southern hemisphere, not about the general concept of southern hemispheres. So it's the "Southern Hemisphere" or alternatively "Earth's southern hemisphere". —AldeBaer 12:58, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment: Per Mzajac, the Canadian Oxford Dictionary notes the following in its entry (p. 1490, sense 2): the half of the celestial sphere south of the celestial equator. Apropos, the article should be edited to reflect that.  Quizimodo 13:11, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Discussion
I certainly agree with the proposed move. You do realize of course the because of technicalities, the actual title of the article will be Southern hemisphere? -- Tλε Rαnδom Eδιτor  ( tαlk ) 19:05, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

It was requested that this article be renamed but there was no consensus for it to be moved. --Stemonitis 18:52, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

Map
This map is totally stupid, it cuts off a major part of the southern hemisphere and misses the antartic. It doesnt show the southern hemisphere, just 3/4 of it so the lable is incorrect. I am useless with maps/wiki in general so could someone do something about it or give me a good reason why the antartic is not shown? Milesharrison (talk) 19:04, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

Intro
"The Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator" This doesn't make sense. THE Southern Hemisphere is the southern half of Earth. A southern hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of its equator. Or have I misunderstood? Headbeater (talk) 05:28, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Summer and Winter does not start on longest/shortest days, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter —Preceding unsigned comment added by Halfter (talk • contribs) 23:40, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Some issues
Paragraph 2 - technically, Oceania is not a continent. Also, in those parts of the southern hemisphere that are north of the tropic of capricorn, the sun passes to the south at some points during the year.

Also some work is needed on nations in the Southern Hemisphere. Under Asia, for example, Malaysia and the Maldives are on both sides of the equator, while under the Pacific New Caledonia has been left out.

Otherwise, good sutff.Tim Macready 4:45 pm 3 February, 2006 (EST)


 * I changed the 2nd paragraph around to make a bit more sense, now the continents are listed in order of how much of their landmass is located in the S. hemisphere, also changed Oceania (which is a region not a continent) to Australia and linked to the Australia_(continent) page

The Commonwealth of Australia includes both the continent of Australia and the island of Tasmania. In Australia, summer begins on 1st December and winter on 1st June (each 3 months)and not on the solstices.Chamonee (talk) 13:20, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

'S'outhern 'H'emisphere or 's'outhern 'h'emisphere?
Is it a proper noun? --- RockMFR 16:25, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Apparently with capitals (one exception out of 5). --Van helsing 07:16, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Revisiting this--the four online dictionaries do not provide the required authority. 'Hemisphere' is a common noun. Compare 'the world', 'atmosphere', 'stratosphere'. The New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2005), at page 260, specifies 'northern hemisphere (lower case)' but North Pole (caps)--and the same for 'southern hemisphere' and South Pole (page 361). I find that this standard is supported by my Funk & Wagnell's (U.S.) Dictionary. Chapter 5 of New Hart's Rules provides a detailed discussion of capitalization issues, including the sensible principle "It is as well, generally to minimise the use of capital initials where there is no detectable difference in meaning between capitalized and lower-case forms." Subject to any further discussion, I therefore propose to amend this to 'southern hemisphere'. Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 01:00, 28 February 2011 (UTC)

Asia
While East Timor and Indonesia may be considered by some (and I don't have an attribution for this; I'm being generous in admitting it's possible) to be Asian countries, the parts of each that lie in the Southern Hemisphere are not in the Asian mainland. The southernmost point of the Asian continent is at or near Singapore, which is 137 km north of the Equator. Therefore, Asia is not in the Southern Hemisphere, as this article claims. I'll be making the correction shortly. -- JeffBillman (talk) 17:56, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
 * This is but one interpretation: islands adjacent to a continental mainland are often considered to be part of a particular continent. Glance at a map of Asia, whereby the isles of Indonesia are reckoned as part of Asia; the same holds true for Japan, Greenland, the British Isles, et al.  Therefore, I have reworded the edit slightly. Quizimodo (talk) 18:16, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Gotcha. I reworded the intro in an attempt to match your edit; feel free to adjust accordingly. -- JeffBillman (talk) 20:20, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
 * All of Indonesia, or only the part west of Wallace's Line? ;) —Tamfang (talk) 00:18, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

Second Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: Not moved. Jafeluv (talk) 07:22, 12 April 2011 (UTC)

Southern Hemisphere → Southern hemisphere

Eastern Hemisphere → Eastern hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere → Northern hemisphere

Western Hemisphere → Western hemisphere

In line with rationale presented above, there appearing to be no dissent. Relisting to clarify that all four hemisphere articles are being discussed. Dabomb87 (talk) 19:11, 3 April 2011 (UTC) Relisting, no discussion so far but some comments above do seem to indicate dissent. Andrewa (talk) 01:42, 11 March 2011 (UTC) --Bjenks (talk) 04:38, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Comment. Northern Hemisphere, Eastern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere all use capital H. Either all or none should be changed. Station1 (talk) 19:24, 3 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Agree. And perhaps there's more to this than meets the eye, see comments above under Intro. Andrewa (talk) 01:42, 11 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Concur. Suggest this be rebooted as a grouped move request including all 4 hemispheres. --Cyber cobra (talk) 04:23, 13 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Support and support Cybercobra's idea of a multiple move request for all 4 hemispheres. –CWenger (talk) 03:09, 15 March 2011 (UTC)
 * Support move and change all four hemispheres to lower case (including 'n', 's', 'e' and 'w' when not capitalised at front of heading or sentence). Bjenks (talk) 02:04, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I have left notes at the talk page of the other three hemisphere articles encouraging editors to participate in this discussion, and I have extended the request to all four. I've relisted this discussion to allow that to happen. Dabomb87 (talk) 19:11, 3 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Strong dissent. I googled "southern hemisphere" just now and practically every instance had both words in the same case.  That is, those who wrote "hemisphere" instead of "Hemisphere" almost all wrote "southern" instead of "Southern." [ok, I missed that point... -- however:]  I've been writing "South Pole" and "Southern Hemisphere" for 2/3 of a century and would be extremely sorry to see Wikipedia be the cause of a switch to either "southern hemisphere" or "south pole." Both are places and should be capitalized accordingly.  The argument that the SH is simply a hemisphere that has happened to maneuver itself below the equator can be extended to argue that the SP is simply a pole that happened to find itself opposite the North Pole -- sorry, north pole.  Wikipedia has huge influence and therefore should not move hastily on such a drastic change.  (But if Wikipedia does succeed in converting the world to "southern hemisphere" I will gladly join the ensuing movement to move "United States" to "united states."  If the four hemispheres can switch, so can the fifty states.)   --Vaughan Pratt (talk) 03:03, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose these refer to specific hemispheres on a particular spheroidal astronomical body, not any old hemisphere on any old spherical astronomical body. If uncapitalized then it should be x hemisphere of the Earth or x hemisphere (Earth). 65.93.12.101 (talk) 11:03, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Furthermore, eastern hemisphere has no meaning except as it is arbitrarily defined for a particular sphere, and a concept so defined is as proper a noun as Manitoba. —Tamfang (talk) 23:54, 4 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Leaning to oppose, unless evidence can be provided that usage in reliable sources is strongly the other way - it seems they ought to be proper nouns, being specifically parts of the Earth.--Kotniski (talk) 07:17, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Oppose (I don't think I've actually voted above). They should be capitalised; There's a Southerm Hemisphere of Mars, a Southern Hemisphere of the Moon, and several other southern hemispheres within the Solar System, but Southern Hemisphere without other qualifiers refers to the particular and prototypical southern hemisphere of Earth. (Or that's in English; It may well be different in Klingon Wikipedia and in Martian Wikipedia when eventually we create one.) Andrewa (talk) 19:54, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

australia is a country or a continent?
australia is a country or a continent?


 * I say both. It depends on who you ask. --Spoon! 21:43, 7 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah, it's both. They're not mutually exclusive, it's just that it's the only place that is (though in the past some people used to say the continent was 'Australasia', but that seems to have faded). --jjron 10:43, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Just noticed the article itself uses both these terms for the continent, and there's a separate article on Australasia. As I said above, from my experience, the use of that term is becoming quite unpopular, but evidently it's still in use. --jjron 10:54, 29 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, Australia is definitely BOTH a country and a continent!!!! :-) RaNdOm26 16:26, 29 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Australia is a continent. The Commonwealth of Australia (usually known as just "Australia") is a country. Australasia is the name for the geopolitical grouping of Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, and it is neither a continent or a country. Format (talk) 07:04, 17 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I second what Format says: Australia is a continent and Australia is a country but these two Australias are not exactly the same. J IM ptalk·cont 13:28, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Which dialect
Can we decide on a dialect for this article. Below is an excerpt of the article with key words in bold.

In the southern hemisphere the sun passes from east to west through the north, although north of the Tropic of Capricorn the mean sun can be directly overhead or due south at midday. The sun rotating through the north causes an apparent right-left trajectory through the sky unlike the left-right motion of the sun when seen from the northern hemisphere as it passes through the southern sky. Sun-cast shadows turn anticlockwise through the day (sun dials have the hours in reverse). Hurricanes and tropical storms spin clockwise in the southern hemisphere (as opposed to counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere) due to the Coriolis effect.

So, should the article be in British English or American English, or is it currently in Australian English? Is the use of both terms standard in Australian or South African English? So which dialect is the article in? —Preceding unsigned comment added by RJM (talk • contribs) 02:49, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
 * For what it is worth, Australian English uses anti-clockwise. Format (talk) 07:08, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

It would make sense to use a Southern Hemisphere dialect. Is there anything here which would be different in Australian, New Zealand and/or South African English? J IM ptalk·cont 13:33, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Population
Is there a credible and up to date source for the population of the southern hemisphere? Counting all the countries together which lie mostly or entirely in the southern hemisphere, it should be something between 850,000,000 and 950,000,000 people. TillF (talk) 01:09, 14 January 2016 (UTC)
 * that can be good, have you reliable sources for this?.--AlfaRocket (talk) 20:10, 27 August 2017 (UTC)

Kenya
Is Kenya partly or mostly in the Southern Hemisphere? What would be the percentage of the country that is actually in the Southern Hemisphere? I can't find any info on the web, it seems to be a 50/50 conundrum with the naked eye. Bobbie73 (talk) 08:16, 16 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Since no one answered my question posted more than two months ago, I decided to have a go myself. According to my wild estimate, calculated using Google Maps, the area of Kenya in the Southern Hemisphere is approx. 262,198 sq km, about 45.1% of Kenya's total area. Bobbie73 (talk) 15:13, 29 August 2017 (UTC)



Error in Indonesian population count
“… while 141 million live on the island of Java, the most populous island in the world. The most populous nation in the Southern Hemisphere is Indonesia, with 261 million people (roughly 230 million of whom live north of the equator on the northern portions of the islands of Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi, while the rest of the population lives in the Southern Hemisphere).”

This section of the article contradicts itself (emphasis mine), as it is impossible that there are 141 million Javanese (all south of the equator) but only 261−230=61 million Indonesians in the Southern hemisphere (unless, maybe, other southhemispherical islands of Indonesia have huge negative populations). I suspect some figures got fliped or inverted, but since I have no sources I cannot correct it. 2405:204:B08B:4C9:AEE0:10FF:FE55:C5E0 (talk) 16:08, 19 February 2018 (UTC)
 * . Thanks for spotting that. It's supposed to be 30 million north of the equator, not 230 million. Station1 (talk) 00:41, 20 February 2018 (UTC)

Definition of the "southern temperate zone"?
The article currently says: "The southern temperate zone, a subsection of the Southern Hemisphere, is nearly all oceanic. This zone includes the southern tip of Uruguay and South Africa; the southern half of Chile and Argentina; parts of Australia, going south from Adelaide, and all of New Zealand."

However, in the article "temperate zone" links to Temperate climate, which defines the "temperate zones" as being "latitudes from 23.5° to the polar circles at about 66.5°, north and south". (They probably meant 'from the Tropics' (which are at about 23.44°), rather than "from 23.5°.) Under this definition, the "southern temperate zone" would include all of Uruguay (not the "southern tip of Uruguay"), most of South Africa (not its "southern tip"), most of Chile and Argentina (not the "southern half" of those countries), and about two thirds of Australia (not just the part south of Adelaide).

Should the text in this article be changed, or is the definition of "temperate zone" (in Temperate climate) incorrect? Ross Finlayson (talk) 12:49, 17 May 2019 (UTC)

Map
Not to nitpick, but the line showing the Prime Meridian seems a little out of place on the map highlighting the Southern Hemisphere. Wmahan. 17:28, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
 * P.S. But without the Equator and yellow shading, it would be great for Prime Meridian. :) Wmahan. 17:35, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

This map is a disaster, there is a whole continent missing. Surely we can get a map of the southern hemisphere that does not have a huge chunk cut off it. It looks like the northern hemisphere is way bigger or something. 89.247.175.239 (talk) 21:40, 1 February 2023 (UTC)