It turns out that not only Archimedes once tried to turn the globe upside down: in the past century another scientist attempted to do the same.
But let us proceed in order… When we look at a geographical map showing the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with a single glance we seem to take in all the landmasses and continents—that is, all of the Earth’s land. This, however, is an invention of cartographers. Here is the real question: above which point on the globe, at the zenith, should an astronaut be located in order to see from aboard their spacecraft the greatest area of solid land? And where should they be to see the greatest amount of ocean water?
By posing these questions, the entire globe could be divided into hemispheres not along the equator, as is customary in classical geography, but into a continental hemisphere and a water hemisphere. The center of the first should lie near the mouth of the French River Loire—precisely above it, at the zenith, an astronaut would have to be positioned if they wished to see at once the greatest area of the Earth’s land. The center of the second hemisphere—the water one—lies near the islands of New Zealand.
Interestingly, the name “continental hemisphere” would be justified only with some reservation: the land area on it would amount to merely 47%. With far greater justification would the name “water hemisphere” apply—the liquid matter would occupy as much as 90.5% of its surface!
Such a method of considering the Earth’s surface was proposed in the past century by the German geographer Karl Ritter, who attempted to “turn” the globe upside down by introducing different coordinates…