# Some geography fun... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 14, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641 "2015-10-14T16:13:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/21 "2015-10-15T19:24:37Z")
[quote=“pulykamell, post:4, topic:734641”] Oh, wow, that’s a toughie. I’m in Illinois. Maybe Peoria? Or one of the Chicago suburbs, Naperville being the obvious one. > [@](#): > > Another toughie. Due East will probably be Rome. I don’t have any clue for the other directions. South will be some place in Central America. I’m not entirely sure South America extends far enough west. > I’m not entirely sure what the question is. You mean how close am I from the nearest whole number longitude and latitude? I don’t know. I know we’re somewhere around 42N, 90W. > > And checking my answers: > > 1. Peoria was #7. But Naperville was #5. Lucked out on that one, but I gave two guesses. I did totally forget about Joliet, though, which was #4, so that wasn’t in my math, and I thought Springfield would be in the Top 5 as well (it’s 6.)My thought was Chicago, Rockford, Aurora, Springfield, Peoria, but that’s #1, #3, #2, #6, #7. > > 2. Looks like Rome is almost dead on for due East at 41.9N, and Chicago is 41.84N, according to Google, although [this site](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_latitude) has Chicago 41º53’N and Rome at 41º54’N, so I’ll count it as a point to me. Looks like in the other direction (west) it would be Shenyang in China. Going south, either Belize City or Cancun would be the correct answer at 87º11’W and 86º51’, respectively, [according to this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_by_longitude). Going North, it looks like Thunder Bay or Eureka, Canada. > > 3. Looks like 42ºN and 87ºW is where we’re at, so I’m a few degrees off on my longitude. Thank you for doing a lot of my work! I am a little northwest of you, and to my east I get Vigo, Spain, to my west I get Hiroo, Japan. To my north is Wild Goose in Canada, and to my south is Dzidzantun in Mexico. I found this site helpful. [MAPfrappe - Iso-LonLat](http://mapfrappe.com/IsoLonLat.html) I’m a little over 28 miles from 42° N, 89° W, unless you mean they have to be even numbers, in which case I would be 70 miles from 42° N, 90° W. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/22 "2015-10-15T19:51:23Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Just now seeing I didn’t respond to your Item 4. > > I have no idea! But I’m now curious if there’s a specific reason or just speculation involved. Please enlighten me on this one. Because, according to [this map](http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/us.htm) you’d have to explain the intervening problems of Wisconsin and Minnesota before joining up with the UP. 🙂 > > Does the answer you’re looking for have to do with oil and/or Fargo? ND? because they’re from another world? The UP? They’ve been talking about becoming a separate state for a while now Just like that one part of southern FL ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/23 "2015-10-16T04:36:40Z")
> [@Stana\_Claus](#): > > 1. If you dug straight down through the center of the earth, where would you come out (your antipode)? Bet you it’s not China! Mine is in the Indian Ocean, 1000 miles away from the nearest land. One of the interesting things about antipodal points on Earth is that the vast majority of the continents are antipodal to ocean. The continental US, for example, is completely opposite to the Indian Ocean where the only land is a few islands. Kerguelen Island is opposite to an area along the Canadian border: mostly Alberta, but also part Montana and part Saskatchewan, although curiously it’s not antipodal to the tripoint of those three. There’s also a couple islands whose names I forget that are opposite to eastern Colorado. Other than that, the northern part of Alaska is opposite Antarctica. Hawaii, though is mostly opposite Africa (Botswana and Namibia). Canada is similar. Besides Kerguelen Island, there’s a few others (Heard Island and maybe one or two more) plus Antarctica in the far north. Australia is antipodal to the north Atlantic but no land at all, not even islands. Although some come close: the Azores are opposite to the Bass Straight (separates Tasmania from the mainland) and Bermuda is antipodal to the sea about 20 or 30 miles off Perth. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/24 "2015-10-16T06:47:36Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > 1. Without looking it up can you identify the fifth largest city in your state? > 2. What foreign (not in your country) city is due North, East, South and West of your current address? > 3. How near are you from the closest Latitude and Longitude _Even Degree_? > 4. Pose one of your own… 1. Yes. I live there. 2. E: Nazare, Portugal / N: nothing / S: nothing / W: Tangshan, China 3. 30 miles ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/25 "2015-10-16T14:26:03Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > 1. Without looking it up can you identify the fifth largest city in your state? > 2. What foreign (not in your country) city is due North, East, South and West of your current address? > 3. How near are you from the closest Latitude and Longitude _Even Degree_? > 4. Pose one of your own… 1. We only have the one. 2. Cities North - Nothing East - Halifax, NS South - Port Au Prince, Haiti West - Kingston, ON 1. 50 miles 2. How far from you is the nearest piece of land owned by the national government? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/26 "2015-10-16T14:34:20Z")
> [@Pabitel](#): > > … > 4) How far from you is the nearest piece of land owned by the national government? Good question! I have no idea unless you’re including things like national cemeteries, battlefields, military bases or installations, and that sort of thing. If you include national monuments and the like, there’s one with five miles of me. Maybe you could define the sort of thing you’re after? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/27 "2015-10-16T14:40:25Z")
Antipodes **Off the coast of Perth, Australia.** What named sea body is closest to you? **150 mi. to the Gulf of Maine** how far are you from the Center of Population (37.458905°N 92.307766°W)? **About 1300 mi. as the crow flies** How far from you is the nearest piece of land owned by the national government? **About 130 mi. to a national forest.** ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/28 "2015-10-16T14:43:26Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > Maybe you could define the sort of thing you’re after? 🙂 I kept it vague to include non-Americans. It could be anything, national park, national forest, wildlife preserve, military base, national monument, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/29 "2015-10-16T14:46:51Z")
> [@Pabitel](#): > > I kept it vague to include non-Americans. It could be anything, national park, national forest, wildlife preserve, military base, national monument, etc. Good deal. Then my answer of a few miles is okay. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/30 "2015-10-16T15:00:34Z")
I’ve had another idea cross my mind. Using the aforementioned Center of Population (now near Plato, Missouri) as a center of whatever sized circle it would take, how big would that circle have to be (radius) to include HALF the US population? That would probably be a big circle since most of the Eastern half, and Northeastern quarter, would have to be crossed into before that population number got in the range of half. Maybe somebody already did this? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Stana\_Claus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stana_claus/32/13874_2.png) [@Stana\_Claus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stana_Claus)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/31 "2015-10-16T15:09:11Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > One of the interesting things about antipodal points on Earth is that the vast majority of the continents are antipodal to ocean. > > The continental US, for example, is completely opposite to the Indian Ocean where the only land is a few islands. Kerguelen Island is opposite to an area along the Canadian border: mostly Alberta, but also part Montana and part Saskatchewan, although curiously it’s not antipodal to the tripoint of those three. There’s also a couple islands whose names I forget that are opposite to eastern Colorado. Other than that, the northern part of Alaska is opposite Antarctica. Hawaii, though is mostly opposite Africa (Botswana and Namibia). Canada is similar. Besides Kerguelen Island, there’s a few others (Heard Island and maybe one or two more) plus Antarctica in the far north. > > Australia is antipodal to the north Atlantic but no land at all, not even islands. Although some come close: the Azores are opposite to the Bass Straight (separates Tasmania from the mainland) and Bermuda is antipodal to the sea about 20 or 30 miles off Perth. One day back in my youth, when thinking critically about the classic “dig a hole to China” thing, I started looking at actual antipodes. As you said, trying to find a spot in North America that actually has a land based antipode is quite the challenge. IIRC there are a few spots in the Pacific Northwest that make landfall, and possibly some on the upper east coast as well. The easiest way I found to track those down was to start with various islands in the middle of the ocean and see where their antipode was. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/32 "2015-10-16T18:22:08Z")
> [@Pabitel](#): > > 1. How far from you is the nearest piece of land owned by the national government? underground or above? ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/33 "2015-10-16T19:18:49Z")
Well, for the UK: 1. 5th largest city: Liverpool, I think. Or perhaps Glasgow. 2. Foreign cities, these are wild guesses: South, Cherbourg, France; East, Copenhagen, Denmark; West, Edmonton, Canada (are there any big cities east of Edmonton but on a similar latitude?); and there is no nation due north of here 3. No clue really. I can’t be very far from the 56 degree north line. Nearest named body of water is the North Sea, maybe 20 miles away at a guess. ---
**Author:** ![betterlifethroughchemistry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/betterlifethroughchemistry/32/3094_2.png) [@betterlifethroughchemistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betterlifethroughchemistry)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/34 "2015-10-17T01:44:15Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > 1. Without looking it up can you identify the fifth largest city in your state? > > Pretty sure it’s the closest city to me - Albany, as in NYC, Buffalo, Rochester/Syracuse (not sure which is 3rd or 4th), and probably Albany… > > 1. What foreign (not in your country) city is due North, East, South and West of your current address? > > North - Montreal > East - Looks like Rome, maybe Madrid, but I think Rome > South - Bogota > West - Seoul > > 1. How near are you from the closest Latitude and Longitude _Even Degree_? > > I was pretty surprised to find it’s less than 10 miles away - 43oN, 74oW > > 1. Pose one of your own… Need to think about it… ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/35 "2015-10-18T06:13:08Z")
> [@Stana\_Claus](#): > > One day back in my youth, when thinking critically about the classic “dig a hole to China” thing, I started looking at actual antipodes. As you said, trying to find a spot in North America that actually has a land based antipode is quite the challenge. IIRC there are a few spots in the Pacific Northwest that make landfall, and possibly some on the upper east coast as well. The easiest way I found to track those down was to start with various islands in the middle of the ocean and see where their antipode was. Either your memory is wrong, or your method for determining antipodes was defective. The best way to find antipodes is by going by lat-long. Latitude antipodes are determined by just switching the direction, N to S or vice versa. Longitude antipodes are found by subtracting from 180 and then switch direction. [Kerguelen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerguelen_Islands): 49°21′S 70°13′E antipode 49 N 110 W This antipode is right at the Alberta-Saskachewan-Montana tripoint. The island is fairly large, almost as large as Puerto Rico. Most is opposite Canada, but some is opposite Montana. [Île Saint-Paul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ile_saint_paul) 38°43′S 77°31′E antipode 39 N 104 W [Île Amsterdam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ile_amsterdam) 39°49′S 77°33′E antipode 40 N 104 W These two are opposite eastern Colorado. I don’t know of any other islands antipodal to the US. The Crozet Islands are not too far away, but their longitude is around 50 E (antipode 130 W) but the US doesn’t get even to 125 W. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/36 "2015-10-18T06:20:06Z")
Somehow messed up one of the links in the above post. try [Île Amsterdam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ile_Amsterdam) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/37 "2015-10-18T17:49:35Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > 1. **Without looking it up can you identify the fifth largest city in your state?** Not sure. I’m guessing Swift Current, Saskatchewan. > [@](#): > > **2) What foreign (not in your country) city is due North, East, South and West of your current address?** North - ain’t one. Once you go past the North Pole, you’re going south. South: Bismarck, North Dakota, I think. East: I think Paris is the major city on the 50th parallel. I’m not sure if there are any other French cities between the coast of France and Paris. West: well, the DMZ in Korea is on the 38th parallel, so that means the 50th parallel is north of Korea, so some place in the coast of Siberia. > [@](#): > > **3) How near are you from the closest Latitude and Longitude _Even Degree_?** I’m afraid I don’t know what this means. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/38 "2015-10-18T18:12:03Z")
Without looking 1. Fresno, CA (Yep, I was right.) 2. Banff, Ensenada, Casablanca and Osaka 3. 34N 116W 4. After coffee ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/39 "2015-10-18T19:21:57Z")
I think Corpus Christi is the fifth largest city in Texas, but it COULD be one of the “suburbs” in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolis. The other questions, I’d have to look up. One of my favorite questions: You’re sailing your boat in the Atlantic. You approach the Panama Canal and are heading for the Pacific. What direction are you sailing within the canal? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2015, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641/40 "2015-10-18T21:23:56Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > … > One of my favorite questions: > > You’re sailing your boat in the Atlantic. You approach the Panama Canal and are heading for the Pacific. What direction are you sailing within the canal? I ought to be able to remember this one since it’s so counter-intuitive but this is just a guess until I go look it up: You enter the canal itself headed southeastward, then turn northwestward after a few miles. Something about the isthmus’s geography is weird. Best I can do from memory. Good question! Thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-geography-fun/734641.md?page=3)