The Dilemma: You know they’re both very important, albeit completely imaginary, lines. But that’s about all you’ve got.

People You Can Impress: astrologers

The Quick Trick: The Tropic of Cancer is located above the equator; Capricorn, below it.

The Explanation:
There are five major latitudinal circles on earth, and we like to think of them in a clothing metaphor: The Equator, located at 0 degrees latitude, is the earth’s belt. The Tropic of Cancer, located at 23 degrees, 26 minutes, 22 seconds north of the Equator, is sort of the Earth’s bra. (The Earth, for the purposes of this metaphor, is a lady.) The Tropic of Capricorn, founds 23 degrees, 26 minutes, 22 seconds south of the equator, is the Earth’s garter belt. Th e Arctic Circle (66 ̊33’38″N) is the Earth’s choker necklace, while the Earth’s socks rise to the Antarctic Circle (66 ̊33’38″S).

We know what you’re wondering (aside from why the Earth is apparently not wearing a blouse): How do we know the as- trological sign of imaginary lines? Did we get drunk at a bar and sidle up to them and just ask? No. The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn mark the northernmost and southernmost points on the Earth where the sun can be seen directly above (in summer for Cancer and winter for Capricorn). When the latitudinal lines were named hundreds of years ago, the sun was entering the constellations of Cancer and Capricorn during the summer and winter solstices, respectively. But because stars change position relative to the sun over time, the sun is now in Sagittarius during the winter solstice and Taurus during the summer solstice. In short, the Tropics are due for a renaming—but tradition will probably hold; otherwise we might have to rename the Henry Miller novels (see below).

Tropic of Cancer vs. Tropic of Capricorn: The Literary Edition
Published in 1934 and 1939, respectively, Henry Miller’s erotic novels Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn caused quite a scandal. The publisher of a pirated edition of Cancer was imprisoned for 10 years, and both novels were banned for decades in the United States until the Supreme Court affirmed their literary value in 1964. The difference between the two? Both are very, very dirty and star a guy named “Henry Miller,” but Capricorn is set in New York, while Cancer takes place in Miller’s adopted hometown, Paris. Also, only Cancer was once featured in an episode of Seinfeld. (It’s the one where Jerry gets a notice from the library that he’s had the book checked out since 1971.)