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The rectangularness of countries
81–90 of 150 posts
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do they say?
Long, straight lines for borders usually imply that the territory through which they are drawn was neither well explored nor terribly important to the people drawing them. Sometimes that's because the territory is mostly uninhabited and nobody really has a strong claim to want their particular patch of land to be on one side or the other, but frequently its because the mapmakers either don't know or don't care about…
The border between Canada and the US, the longest international land border on Earth, is very rectangular, consisting largely of the lines 49 degrees north latitude and 141 degrees west longitude.
It is very likely that those drawing the border did not care one little bit about the opinions of those who already lived there, and it was definitely unexplored by them.
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#83Colorado wins
Fun fact: Colorado isn't a perfect rectangle (besides the lines of longitude converging). It's legally defined as straight lines between certain points that surveyors tried to make straight, but didn't get it exactly right. For example, see this part of the western border: https://goo.gl/maps/BKgwJ4bMfjF2
http://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/glad-you-asked/...
Another kink in the souther border: https://www.google.com/maps/@36.988568,-106.87603,12z
Credit to this blog: http://www.howderfamily.com/blog/colorado-not-rectangle/
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#84509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded
Here's an archived copy: https://archive.is/cRkgb
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's also good to realize that countries do not lie on a plane, and the edges of the rectangles should be great circle arcs.
Does this depend on the map projection used?
No.. what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't use a map projection, but rather picture countries painted on the surface of a sphere. Then the border of a country is represented using latitude/longitude coordinates, and straight lines are instead arcs of a great circle. The difference should usually be pretty small, but some countries cough China are big enough that it might matter.
If a measure of rectangularity depends on the map projection used, then it probably also depends on how you orient the coordinate system (e.g. where the North pole is), and is therefore not well defined.
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#86Correlate with economic development!
I've just checked with Gini and GDP per capita. No correlations :/
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#87For people who like complex borders https://www.google.be/maps/place/Baarle-Hertog/ This is a Belgian city enclave within the Netherlands with enclaves of the Netherlands within its borders
Wow. I feel like there should be a CGP Grey video about this. He has one about London vs the City of London and the weird US/Canada border.
Someone also tried to tell me Norwood, Ohio is the largest city within a city (an enclave city), but I can't find a source on that anywhere.
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#88What's wrong with New Zealand?
Longitude overflow.
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#89For people who like complex borders https://www.google.be/maps/place/Baarle-Hertog/ This is a Belgian city enclave within the Netherlands with enclaves of the Netherlands within its borders
Until this past year, the India/Bangladesh border was similar - there was even a triple-deep enclave (india inside bangladesh inside india inside bangladesh... I think...). They just recently did a land swap to make the border more sane, and also easier on the inhabitants, who didn't have freedom of movement between the parts.
Re: The rectangularness of countries
#90For people who like complex borders https://www.google.be/maps/place/Baarle-Hertog/ This is a Belgian city enclave within the Netherlands with enclaves of the Netherlands within its borders
Wow. I feel like there should be a CGP Grey video about this. He has one about London vs the City of London and the weird US/Canada border. Someone also tried to tell me Norwood, Ohio is the largest city within a city (an enclave city), but I can't find a source on that anywhere.
https://youtu.be/oE93J33SfHY
Really great video by Tom Scott about Baarle Hertog