{ "model": { "rank": 3218, "code": "thing-q32099", "model_id": "vr.tr.meridian", "name": "meridian", "purpose": "Let an agent explain meridians, relay geodesy, history, the prime meridian and surveying uses from geodetic and historical sources, describe the named meridian types, and distinguish meridians from parallels, time zones, the celestial meridian and traditional Chinese medicine meridians.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.QLT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q32099/", "tier": 2, "score": 89, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "meridian marker", "prime meridian", "principal meridian" ], "aliasCount": 3, "merged": 3, "knownIn": 89, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q32099", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q32099", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T20:39:27Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q32099", "registryId": "vr.tr.meridian", "name": "meridian", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.QLT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q32099/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.meridian", "name": "meridian", "purpose": "Let an agent explain meridians, relay geodesy, history, the prime meridian and surveying uses from geodetic and historical sources, describe the named meridian types, and distinguish meridians from parallels, time zones, the celestial meridian and traditional Chinese medicine meridians.", "definition": "In geography, a meridian or line of longitude is half of a great circle on the Earth s surface running from the North Pole to the South Pole, connecting points of equal longitude, measured east or west from the prime meridian, internationally agreed at Greenwich in 1884 and today realised as the IERS Reference Meridian about 102 metres east of the Greenwich transit circle; surveying systems use principal meridians, such as those of the US Public Land Survey System, and meridian markers show meridian lines on the ground. The term also names the celestial meridian in astronomy and, in traditional Chinese medicine, proposed energy channels, a distinct concept.", "what_it_is_for": "Defining longitude and position.", "affordances": [ "explain geodesy", "relay history of the prime meridian", "describe named meridian types", "distinguish other senses" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Pole to pole", "Longitude reference", "Historical conventions", "Several meanings" ], "appearance": "Lines running north-south on maps and globes; sometimes marked on the ground by plaques or lines.", "visual_identification": [ "Line of constant longitude from pole to pole", "Meridian marker, prime meridian, principal meridian", "Parallels are lines of latitude; time zones follow political boundaries; the celestial meridian is in the sky; TCM meridians are a medical tradition concept" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "International Meridian Conference", "typical_range": "1884", "unit": "year", "note": "Washington" }, { "quantity": "IERS Reference Meridian offset", "typical_range": "about 102", "unit": "m", "note": "east of Airy transit circle" }, { "quantity": "longitude range", "typical_range": "180 degrees east and west", "unit": "note", "note": "" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "prime meridian", "antimeridian", "principal survey meridians", "national historical prime meridians such as Paris", "celestial meridian" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "half of great circle", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "defines", "target": "longitude", "why": "" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "prime meridian", "why": "" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "circle of latitude", "why": "" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service conventions", "WGS 84", "US Public Land Survey System" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Confusing the Greenwich line and the IERS meridian", "Confusing meridians and time zones", "Presenting TCM meridians as anatomical structures" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What a meridian is.", "rationale": "Definition.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a meridian, and how does it differ from parallels, time zones, the celestial meridian and TCM meridians?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about geography, surveying, astronomy or traditional medicine?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "types", "name": "Types", "description": "Named types.", "findings": [ { "id": "types-finding", "name": "Types", "description": "Types.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the prime meridian, principal meridians and meridian markers?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific meridian?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "geodesy", "name": "Geodesy", "description": "Geodesy.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "longitude", "name": "Longitude", "description": "Longitude.", "findings": [ { "id": "longitude-finding", "name": "Longitude", "description": "Longitude.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is longitude defined and measured?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "iers", "name": "IERS", "description": "Reference meridian.", "findings": [ { "id": "iers-finding", "name": "IERS", "description": "IERS.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why does the GPS zero meridian lie east of the Greenwich line?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "conference", "name": "Conference", "description": "1884 conference.", "findings": [ { "id": "conference-finding", "name": "Conference", "description": "Conference.", "questions": [ { "text": "How was Greenwich chosen in 1884, and which countries objected?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits International Meridian Conference?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "surveying", "name": "Surveying", "description": "Survey meridians.", "findings": [ { "id": "surveying-finding", "name": "Surveying", "description": "Surveying.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are principal meridians used in land surveys?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Public Land Survey System?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Other senses.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "astronomy", "name": "Astronomy", "description": "Celestial meridian.", "findings": [ { "id": "astronomy-finding", "name": "Astronomy", "description": "Astronomy.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the celestial meridian and meridian transit?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits meridian (astronomy)?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "tcm", "name": "Traditional medicine", "description": "TCM meridians.", "findings": [ { "id": "tcm-finding", "name": "Traditional medicine", "description": "Traditional medicine.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are meridians in traditional Chinese medicine, and what does scientific evidence say, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits meridian (Chinese medicine)?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should the principal meridian be a separate entry?", "How should geodetic sources be linked?", "Should TCM meridians be disambiguated?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a meridian, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain meridians, relay geodesy, history, the prime meridian and surveying uses from geodetic and historical sources, describe the named meridian types, and distinguish meridians from parallels, time zones, the celestial meridian and traditional Chinese medicine meridians.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: meridian marker, prime meridian, principal meridian.", "3 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 89 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a meridian, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "meridian marker", "prime meridian", "principal meridian" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 89 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 3 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one meridian from another, and a meridian from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a meridian sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a meridian from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a meridian passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a meridian between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a meridian, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a meridian is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What meridian is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of meridian are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is meridian operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of meridian and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of meridian?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as meridian?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a meridian came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a meridian and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a meridian is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a meridian, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a meridian, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a meridian is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }