
Subject:
[cohp] Digest Number 5195
From:
cohp@yahoogroups.com
Date:
11/13/2015 2:38 AM
To:
cohp@yahoogroups.com

County High Pointing in all 50 states
Yahoo! Groups
County High Pointing in all 50 states Group
4 Messages
Digest #5195
1a
Re: Aleutian Islands by "Scott Surgent" surgent1
2a
FW: Prime Meridians by "Don Holmes" donh41
2b
Re: FW: Prime Meridians [1 Attachment] by "Scott Surgent" surgent1
3
Re. third opinion on easternmost by davidwmolson2

Messages
1a
Re: Aleutian Islands
Thu Nov 12, 2015 9:06 am (PST) . Posted by:
"Scott Surgent" surgent1
I had always thought it was "convenient" that the 180th meridian went
through mostly ocean, thereby leaving all of the Americas in one
hemisphere, and almost all of Asia in another. I suspected that this was
done deliberately, but apparently it was not. The Bering Strait is crossed
by the 169th Western meridian. If planners had wanted the "farthest
east/west" line to be through the Bering Strait, then the prime meridian
would have to be shifted 11 degrees east, which would place it through
Norway, Germany, and long stretches of Africa. The downside is that neither
the English nor the French would have been happy. A war would have
developed. The upside is that 0-degrees long by 0-degrees lat would have
been on land.

North and south make perfect sense since it is defined by the Earth's axis
of revolution. East and west, on a sphere(-oid) makes little sense without
a coordinate axis system imposed on it. East and west do make sense on a
flat map, with distinct left and right edges. All of this falls into the
conundrum of projecting a sphere onto a flat surface, and vice versa. The
two are topologically unalike, and there exists no such homeomorphic
projection. The best we can do is chop of the tops and bottoms, distort the
extreme north and south latitudes, arbitrarily cut the picture vertically,
and so on.

One could define east as the direction of rotation of the planet. Thus,
traveling in that direction is "east" and traveling against that direction
is "west". These are well defined definitions, except at the north or south
pole. However, on a sphere, there is no "farthest east" or "farthest west".
You can travel east or west infinitely. But you cannot travel north or
south infinitely.

Technically, by placement of the 180th meridian for whatever reason they
were thinking in 1884, then those islands at the far end of the Aleutians
are "farthest east", but relative to anyone standing at any point in
Alaska, one would have to travel west (against the rotation of the earth)
to get to them, via a shortest line.

On 11 November 2015 at 20:12, highpt43@optimum.net [cohp] <
cohp@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

>
>
> I said in my previous post the 180th parallel is arbitrarily defined. I'm
> not disputing that. I even used the example of the 180th parallel could
> have been decided to go through New York and Los Angeles.
>
>
> Lets use your example if the 180th parallel ran through Chicago.
> "Technically&quot; Indiana is both east and west of Chicago. Whether you travel
> east or you travel west you will eventually reach the same place. 99.999%
> of the people would say Indiana lies east of Chicago because traveling to
> Indiana from Chicago is far shorter traveling east than west but both
> answers are correct. However, when we talk in extremes using easternmost or
> westernmost my argument is the correct one as per the 1884 Meridian
> Conference which arbitrarily designated the position of the longitudinal
> lines.
>
>
> Defining the 180th parallel and Greenwich Prime Meridian was arbitrary as
> the longi tudinal lines could have been placed anywhere. What if the French
> won out and the Eiffel Tower were on the Prime Meridian or Times Square in
> New York. Hey, they don't call Times Square, "Crossroads of the World" for
> nothing..
>
>
> Since the mid Pacific Ocean was decided to be the place for the 180th
> parallel to be located by the 1884 conference then at that line your
> easternmost and westernmost. The 180th parallel and Greenwich Prime
> Meridian ) parallel defines the Eastern and Western Hemisphere.
>
>
> Likewise the North Pole is northernmost and South Pole is southernmost;
> though in the case of the Poles, that point is not arbitrary because the
> Earth is a sphere. All longitudinal lines must converge at the Poles.
>
>
> On the other hand, latitudinal lines are not arbitrary. Latitudinal lines
> are fixed as they are measurements from the distance between the Equator
> and the Poles.
>
>
>
> L anny Wexler
>
>
>

-- 
Scott Surgent
Principal Lecturer & Associate Director, First Year Mathematics
Arizona State University, Tempe
Reply to sender . Reply to group . Reply via Web Post . All Messages (17) . Top ^
2a
FW: Prime Meridians
Thu Nov 12, 2015 10:51 am (PST) . Posted by:
"Don Holmes" donh41


Some time ago, I did some research on the Prime Meridian used in the United States. I have attached some information I found. I hope it is not too boring

Don Holmes
Reply to sender . Reply to group . Reply via Web Post . All Messages (2) . Top ^
2b
Re: FW: Prime Meridians [1 Attachment]
Thu Nov 12, 2015 11:10 am (PST) . Posted by:
"Scott Surgent" surgent1
Thanks Don, this is fascinating!

Scott

On 12 November 2015 at 11:51, Don Holmes climberdh@outlook.com [cohp] <
cohp@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> Some time ago, I did some research on the Prime Meridian used in the
> United States. I have attached some information I found. I hope it is not
> too boring
>
> Don Holmes
>
>
>

-- 
Scott Surgent
Principal Lecturer & Associate Director, First Year Mathematics
Arizona State University, Tempe
Reply to sender . Reply to group . Reply via Web Post . All Messages (2) . Top ^
3
Re. third opinion on easternmost
Thu Nov 12, 2015 12:08 pm (PST) . Posted by:
davidwmolson2

Andy Martin posed a challenge question to us,
"Finally, there is a project here, visit the northernmost,
easternmost, westernmost and southernmost point of
the state you live in."

Which state would be easiest? Andy guessed that it
would be Delaware.

Hawaii would have well-defined n-e-w-s-most points.
Its northmost and westmost would be tough to visit.
Same for Alaska.

Other states that look like they have well-defined
direction extremals include South Carolina, and
West Virginia. New Jersey and Massachusetts
have single points, but easternmost for both is
hard because of the nearly north-south orienta-
tion of the coast.

Any others?

--------
As for the 180 degrees longitude going through land,
many decades ago I read an article about an island
in the Pacific Ocean where the agreement makers
had goofed up, and the Intl. Date Line goes through
it.

davidwmolson@aim.com

Reply to sender . Reply to group . Reply via Web Post . All Messages (1) . Top ^
Visit Your Group

Yahoo! Groups
 Privacy  Unsubscribe  Terms of Use
