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The rectangularness of countries

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Re: The rectangularness of countries

#2
Neat!

To me, Egypt doesn't look very rectangular at all. The very deep concave section, and the sharp convex portion at the bottom right completely break rectangularity for me.

I'm also curious as to why Nauru seems to have such sharp, straight borders - it looks more like the Vatican than a Pacific island.

Re: The rectangularness of countries

#8
post #3

Some people have too much time on their hands.

> For example, if I’m in the mood to think about shapes— and I often am— I might imagine a triangle inside a rectangular box. I wonder how much of the box the triangle takes up? Two-thirds maybe? The important thing to understand is that I’m not talking about this drawing of a triangle in a box. Nor am I talking about some metal triangle forming part of a girder system for a bridge. There’s no ulterior practical purpose here. I’m just playing. That’s what math is— wondering, playing, amusing yourself with your imagination.

http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/mnewman/LockhartsLament.pdf

Re: The rectangularness of countries

#9
post #3

Some people have too much time on their hands.

I agree; they really shouldn't spend their time leaving disparaging comments of other peoples' hobbies.

Seriously! I wish I'd rather done an analysis of countries' shapes, and a measure of their rectagularity, viewed by hundreds of thousands/millions of people online than made this comment, where all I do is agree with you against the annoying snarkiness of the grandparent!

On a different note, agree with one of the higher level comments. Egypt doesn't look as rectangular as other countries: perhaps it's the country whose concavity and convexity are best cancelled?

Edit: Co-incidentally, the comment I was referring to was yours, parent post. I was unaware when originally posting.

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