I was inspired to ask by the thread about a “Texas-sized cotton ball”. I wondered: How big is a Texas-sized cotton ball, anyway? I imagine the OP of that thread means a cotton ball with a diameter roughly that of the longest distance between two points that are just within the border of the State of Texas.
But Texas isn’t a ball; it’s an oddly-shaped territory, some portions of it mountainous, some pan-flat. If texas were just a two-dimensional area, technically, it would have hardly any mass at all, as it would have no thickness. But when you dig a hole, you haven’t left Texas, you gone deeper into it. So Texas must not be a 2D membrane; it’s got depth. But how much? I’ve read here on the SD that Texas includes the sky above it (its “airspace”). Does all that lies below also fall under its jurisdiction? Does Texas continue down in an ever-narrowing column until it ends at a point in the Earth’s center? How big, really, is a Texas-sized anything? Could I measure it in km[sup]3[/sup]? Do we know how much mass it would include? Does jurisdiction end somewhere shy of planet’s deep interior? If so, where?
If you were actually from Texas, you wouldn’t have to ask…
Well, let’s consider mineral rights. How far ‘down’ do those xtend? All the way through the lithosphere? Or do they end at some prearranged depth? That might help us determine actual volume.
When I was a little kid I spent hours pondering this exact question, and the only conclusion that I came to is that it doesn’t matter. Who has mineral rights five miles below Texas? Nobody, because you can’t get minerals from that deep.
Related question: If state borders don’t extend “all the way down,” and could be said to end at the point where mining would be infeasible, could someone declare himself “King of the Center of the Earth” and claim to own the entire planet sans crust, like that one guy did with the moon?
(Yes, I know the moon guy’s claim isn’t binding. It’s just a hypothetical.)
Just for the record: when someone says “Texas-sized” they mean of a size preferred by the residents of Texas, i.e. bigger than that common in other more pansy-ass states. A Texas-sized marguerita, for instance, is bigger than a New Jersey–sized marguerita not because Texas is bigger than New Jersey but because Texans, been hard-drinking hombres, like their drinks bigger.
But I’m sure you knew that.
As for your Texas Underdark query, all bets are off when you pass the crust.
In the movie Armageddon, a “Texas-sized” asteroid was heading toward the US.
I took that to mean that the object was roughly spherical with a diameter more or less consistent with the North-South or East-West dimensions of Texas. I believe Texas is about 900 miles from its westernmost point to its easternmost point, and about 700 miles from its southernmost point to its northenmost point.
So, a Texas-sized ball of cotton, in my mind, is a spherical object with a diamter of 700-900 miles.
Yeah, that’s my understanding as well. Otherwise, most folks would use “supersized” or “king sized” (no disrespect to Texas meant) to describe something extra-big.
So…the small consensus above seems to indicate beyond the lithosphere, state boundaries no longer apply. Y’think this is codified anywhere, or is that just a commonsense understanding? I thought at first the liquidity of the mantle might be a complicating issue in defining state jurisdiction beneath the crust, but then realized rivers, lakes, and oceans, being dynamic liquid bodies, are within the jurisdiction of states, even though the water in them yesterday is not the same water there today in all cases.
Legally, one’s property rights extend downwards and upwards from the two-dimensional representation of the surface. So presumably Texas has sovereignty over a pyramidal-shaped slice of the Universe tapering to a point at the center of the earth, shaped like Texas (with shoreline rights) as it passes through the Earth’s surface, and with no particular outer limit. (Treaties on the use of outer space may affect its sovereignty above the atmosphere.)
Using “state” in its U.S. meaning, a sovereign entity which has surrendered a portion of its sovereignty to a larger national body, however, the largest state is neither Texas nor Alaska, but Western Australia. I wonder if those under the Black Swan Flag have the same reputation as those under the Lone Star?
The total area of the United States is 9,518,323 square kms. Therefore the average size of a state is 190,366 square kms. The total area of the state of Texas is 692,248 square kms. Therefore a Texas-sized object is one which is approximately 3.6364 times the average size of that class of objects.
To me “Texas-sized” always meant “Big” in general. “Everything’s Bigger in Texas” has been part of the vernacular for as long as I can remember. And personal experience has taught me that Texans are pretty damned proud of being Texans, moreso I’d say than residents of other states.
Of course if you cut Alaska in half you’d have two states bigger than Texas, but “Alaska-Sized can of whupass” doesn’t pack the same mental image of toughness–a fact which completely escapes me considering some of the Alaskan residents I’ve known.
Personally, given the amount of pure craziness and mayhem that would be unleashed upon the planet by a “Really Big” asteroid, I would think “Alaska-Sized” should be given a niche in everyday speech. As for “Western Australia-Sized,” well, it doesn’t suitably roll off the tongue for a glib comment.
No cite for it, but I imagine that the “Texas sized” stuff probably grew into our speech long before Alaska was admitted into the Union. So, there would seem to be some amount of inertia there.
Besides, there’s still one thing Texas has that Alaska doesn’t,
PRO FOOTBALL!
Woo-Hoo !!! I win, close thread. :dubious:
In elementary school we had run “Texas” laps which was basically an overgrown field with a quarter mile circumference. I honestly remember thinking hatefully of those lucky bastards in Rhode Island skipping merrily around a small circle in 70 degree weather. As for the poor folks in Alaska, I was pretty sure they had a dog team to run it for them.
