I was just googling something, and found some interesting facts. I wondered how many would be able to guess these (without googling the answer!)…
My friend Paul lives in the most northerly state in the USA.
My friend John lives in the most easterly state in the USA.
My friend Sarah lives in the most westerly state in the USA.
Can someone tell me, for each of my friends, what state they live in?
Alaska–although the “Eastern” bit is arguable, since we could declare the International Dateline the border of East and West instead of 180° Longitude. BUt to avoid hassles, we’ll use the longitude rather than the Dateline.
Paul lives in Alaska
John lives in Maine
Sarah lives in Hawaii
My vote is with QED
tom: So… if we use the Dateline as the border then it wouldn’t be the most Easterly? Would it be Hawaii?
:smack: I meant westerly, of course.
If the Dateline is the East-West border, then Maine becomes the Easternmost state. Hawaii is out farther west (in miles) into the Pacific, but, because Alaska is up where all the longitude bunches together, it is clearly the most western state.
Nihau, HI is just East of 160° 30’ W longitude. (Even Midway Island is only at around 177° W.)
Attu, AK extends out to around 173° E longitude.
Yeah, I can actually understand that now. The further north you are closer the longitudes are bunched. It’s quite a strange concept to get your head round…
By those longitudes Alaska is the most easterly because Attu is, as you point out, in the eastern hemisphere.