ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

90th meridian west

Imagine you are holding a globe, the kind that spins around. The globe is like a big ball that we use to show where all the countries and oceans are in the world. You might see lines running from top to bottom on the globe. These lines are called longitude and they help us know where we are on the globe.

The 90th meridian west is one of these longitude lines, but it's a special one. It's the line that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, cutting through the United States and some other countries too.

If you're standing right on this line, you're right in the middle of it, which is a pretty cool thing to imagine. It's like standing at the exact center of a giant pizza.

But why is the 90th meridian west so important? Well, it's a reference point for a lot of things. For example, if you look at a map of time zones, you'll notice that the time zone on the 90th meridian west is the center of the Central time zone in the United States.

It's also used as a dividing line for something called the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. If you're on the east side of this line, you're in the Western Hemisphere. If you're on the west side of this line, you're in the Eastern Hemisphere.

So, the 90th meridian west might seem like just another line on a globe, but it's actually a super important line that helps us understand where we are in the world and how time works.