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EdvinW
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If you wantOne way which gets your continents strictly opposite from each other you could solve thisis by giving your planet a tilted axis and an elliptical orbit.

If, say, the Cold Place is centred at 45° north you just need to make sure that it has summer (i.e. that it's tilted towards the sun) when the planet is the furthest away from the its sun. This way, the tilt and the distance would counteract each other on the northern hemisphere, while they combine in the south. The opposite is true in the northern summer.

By varying the latitudes, the eccentricity of the orbit and the tilt you could get many levels of difference. I don't have time to run the numbers now, but I could try later.

Also, you could cheat a little bit by placing one continent slightly closer to the equator if you need to to get the difference you want.

Note though, that this configuration likely isn't totally stable, in that the difference would probably vary or even reverse over sufficiently long time scales. Within the life of a civilisation it should be stable enough though.

If you want your continents strictly opposite from each other you could solve this by giving your planet a tilted axis and an elliptical orbit.

If, say, the Cold Place is centred at 45° north you just need to make sure that it has summer (i.e. that it's tilted towards the sun) when the planet is the furthest away from the its sun. This way, the tilt and the distance would counteract each other on the northern hemisphere, while they combine in the south. The opposite is true in the northern summer.

By varying the latitudes, the eccentricity of the orbit and the tilt you could get many levels of difference. I don't have time to run the numbers now, but I could try later.

Also, you could cheat a little bit by placing one continent slightly closer to the equator if you need to to get the difference you want.

Note though, that this configuration likely isn't totally stable, in that the difference would probably vary or even reverse over sufficiently long time scales. Within the life of a civilisation it should be stable enough though.

One way which gets your continents strictly opposite from each other is by giving your planet a tilted axis and an elliptical orbit.

If, say, the Cold Place is centred at 45° north you just need to make sure that it has summer (i.e. that it's tilted towards the sun) when the planet is the furthest away from the its sun. This way, the tilt and the distance would counteract each other on the northern hemisphere, while they combine in the south. The opposite is true in the northern summer.

By varying the latitudes, the eccentricity of the orbit and the tilt you could get many levels of difference. I don't have time to run the numbers now, but I could try later.

Also, you could cheat a little bit by placing one continent slightly closer to the equator if you need to to get the difference you want.

Note though, that this configuration likely isn't totally stable, in that the difference would probably vary or even reverse over sufficiently long time scales. Within the life of a civilisation it should be stable enough though.

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EdvinW
  • 3.1k
  • 1
  • 8
  • 23

If you want your continents strictly opposite from each other you could solve this by giving your planet a tilted axis and an elliptical orbit.

If, say, the Cold Place is centred at 45° north you just need to make sure that it has summer (i.e. that it's tilted towards the sun) when the planet is the furthest away from the its sun. This way, the tilt and the distance would counteract each other on the northern hemisphere, while they combine in the south. The opposite is true in the northern summer.

By varying the latitudes, the eccentricity of the orbit and the tilt you could get many levels of difference. I don't have time to run the numbers now, but I could try later.

Also, you could cheat a little bit by placing one continent slightly closer to the equator if you need to to get the difference you want.

Note though, that this configuration likely isn't totally stable, in that the difference would probably vary or even reverse over sufficiently long time scales. Within the life of a civilisation it should be stable enough though.