evenaar

Evenaar is the Dutch term for the equator, the imaginary line encircling the Earth at 0 degrees latitude. It is the reference circle equidistant from the North and South Poles and divides the planet into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. It is a great circle and the longest line of latitude, with a circumference of about 40,075 kilometers. The Earth's rotation makes the equator the circle with the largest radius; at the equator, linear velocity is about 465 meters per second, and gravity is slightly weaker than at the poles due to centrifugal force.

The equator passes through oceans and several countries, including Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil in South America; Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Kenya in Africa; and Indonesia in Asia. The area around the equator has a tropical climate—high temperatures and heavy rainfall with little seasonal variation in day length. Daylight is approximately 12 hours year-round, though the Sun’s declination produces some local variation. The region is influenced by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, causing frequent rainfall in many areas.

In navigation and geography, the 0° latitude line serves as the origin for measuring latitude; it is used to define the global grid of coordinates. The term “evenaar” appears in Dutch-language geographic references and education materials.