I heard the following questions and thought they were amusing.
Do you have any to add to these?
Which city is further west? Reno, NV or LosAngeles, CA?
Reno.
If you drew a line directly south from Atlanta, GA where would South America be in relation to this line? West of it, east of it, on it?
East of it.
This was no surprise to me.
How about the one that asks “What’s the first foreign country you encounter when drawing a line directly south from Detroit? Canada.”
What direction are you traveling when you go through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific?
southeast
After what animal were the Canary Islands named?
The indigenous dogs – Ilhas Canarias from Latin Canis, however it was adapted into Medieval Portuguese. The little yellow birds found there were named after the islands.
A hunter starts from his base camp and walks exactly 10 miles due south.
He turns and walks exactly 10 miles due east.
He shoots a bear.
He turns and drags the bear for 10 miles going due north, where he arrives at his base camp again.
What color was the bear?
White
Because he was at the north pole, silly.
Not sure if this is true or not, but…
If you are standing at the northernmost point in Texas, are you closer to the southernmost point in Texas or Canada?
Answer of course is Canada, or else it wouldn’t be a trick question!
White! Right?
What`s the southern most city in the US?
And from my apartment window, I can see the sun rise over the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic is to my west.
Using the 0 and 180 meridians as your delimiters, what is the easternmost state in the US?
Which is farther south: Point Pelee National Park, Ontario, or Thompsonville, CT?
Hamburg, Germany is at approximately the latitude of: Boston, MA, Seattle, WA, or Edmonton, Alberta?
True or false: It is possible for a bird to fly due south from a point in Florida into one other state? Explain your answer.
There are at least two points on Earth where one can travel 100 miles south, followed by 100 miles east, then 100 miles north, and arrive at the starting point. One of them, obviously, is at the north pole. Where is another one?
100 miles north of a latitude at which the Earth’s cross section has a 100 mile circumference
What is the westernmost state in the union?
What is the northernmost state in the union?
What is the easternmost state in the union?
Answer to all three: Alaska
I call foul on that last one, Chefguy. “East” and “West” are relative directions. If I wanted to get to Alaska, I would head west, no matter which part of it we were talking about.
The southern-most city in the US is probably Hilo, Hawaii.
Which US state is closest to Africa?
Most people visualize a flat map, and guess “Florida”. Look at a round globe and it’s obvious… Maine.
How much does the Gulf Stream warm up the scepter’d isle? Canada has polar bears at Edinburgh’s latitude.
Er…no. East and west are determined by longitude. The following is a quote from this site:
I’m always amazed at how far west Havana, Cuba is in relation to certain points in the southeastern U.S. I make the same mistake everytime I try to visualize a map.
More of a fun fact than trick question, but Colorado’s western state line (shared with Utah) is not straight. Due to a surveyor’s mistake in 1879, there is a 1 mile “jog” about in the middle. Neither state contested the boundary after the mistake was discovered so the line stands as it was originally surveyed. Technically, this makes Colorado a six-sided state, not four.
You can find places where three states meet at a single point. There’s one place where four states meet at a single point. Bt there’s one group of three states that meet in three separate and distinct points. Which three states, and how?
By the way, Horseflesh, if you look closely at state boundaries you’ll notice that a lot of wha appear to be straight lines actually have jogs undetectable on normal scale maps. I don’t mean things like Minnesota’s odd northward “jog” into Canada, or Massachusetts’ extension into Connecticut – hose show up n your average road map. I mean tiny and oscure nonlinearities like the one you describe.
I know but for some reason I’ve heard of this “mistake” more than once. The first time I heard about it I immediately checked out the household Rand McNally road atlas. I was surprised to see the tiny jog actually depicted (southwest corner of Montrose county, Colorado).
BTW, I gotta agree with Diceman, east and west are relative directions. If I were just on the US side of the IDL and was giving tourists directions to Asia, I wouldn’t point and say “Head west for a couple of miles, then (without turning) head east until you hit land.”