[Music] earth is surrounded by some imaginary lines to help us find an accurate position distance time zone etc these lines are latitude and longitude latitudes are horizontal imaginary lines and longitudes are vertical lines the equator is the main latitude line passing through the middle of the earth horizontally now comes the main question what is the equator the equator is an arbitrary line dividing the earth between the northern and southern hemisphere this is one of the horizontal lines known as a latitude line the word equator means even maker in latin simply it is an imaginary line on the surface of the earth equidistant from the north and south poles separating the earth into the northern and southern hemispheres the value of equator is zero degrees it can also be described as the great ring around the planet that is equidistant from the geographical poles and lies in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the planet this spatial hypothetical line separates the earth into the northern and southern hemispheres it also represents the hypothetical reference line on the surface of the earth on which latitudes are being measured it's the latitude of zero degrees now we will talk about some interesting facts and characteristics of the equator [Music] number one equator is located midway between the north and the south pole number two at the equator the planet's surface is parallel to the rotation axis number three it is 40 075 kilometers in length or 24 901 in mile number four equator passes through 79 of water and 21 of land approximately number five the precise position of the equator isn't really specified number six the four seasons are not encountered by countries near this imaginary line so the weather near equator is typically very warm number seven the length of night and day near the equator line is approximately the same daylight is also almost the same around the year number eight night time is approximately 14 minutes shorter than daylight number nine locations near the equator witnesses the shortest sunrises and sunsets and for much of the year the normal direction of the sun is nearly perpendicular to the horizon number 10 earth is bulging near the equator therefore earth's radius is slightly longer than the normal around this line earth's radius is 12 750 kilometers but it is 43 kilometers longer near this line number 11 it has the fastest rotational speed among any latitude nearly 460 meters per second number 12 this extra rotational speed gives extra velocity to the spacecraft launched eastward number 13 the equator passes over 13 countries these countries are ecuador colombia brazil south home and principe gabon republic of the congo the democratic republic of the congo uganda kenya somalia maldives indonesia and kiribati [Music] thank you for watching this video for more video like this please subscribe to our channel