Outstanding! Our first report outside North America! Here’s hoping others around the world will find this thread appealing, too.
I have no problem with two (or more) confluences being “nearest” you if that’s the way things are. You could be dead center of a rectangle formed by four and have that issue to report.
Surely, [Undecided] Adrian, you didn’t pick your username for this reason!
One of the photos at one of your confluences here reminded me of a guy I knew giving directions to his home. He said something like, “Go west on US 49 until you come to the white 53 Ford on the side of the road. Take a right there.”
Uh… oops… Yeah, that was backwards. But it actually should be 43N, 85W. I got in a hurry typing it, apparently. :smack:
And I drove by this point this afternoon on the way home from a ski day with my son. I didn’t really have time to stop, though.
Close - but not quite, now. However, if BobLibDem is in East Lansing, we’re pretty close, any way. I work in EL. Bob - if you’re interested, drop me a note. We could have a mini-dope-fest - maybe lunch at Crunchy’s or some other watering hole along Grand River?
Another thing RalfCoder, if and when we ever decide to modify the basic DopeFest to a “Confluence Party” I think your mention of the idea should be given credit for it.
And here’s a challenge to Middle Tennessee Dopers: if you don’t want to bother with the links to either missred’s or my nearest confluence, but want to say “same as missred” or “same as Zeldar” then that will work fine as far as I’m concerned.
This would apply to all other previously mentioned confluences.
Who wants to take the ball and set up the first Confluence Party?
If this map isn’t zoomed out enough to see it immediately, try three clicks from max zoom out to see that the 0-0 spot is nearly due south of Accra and due west of Libreville, with the Sao Tom spot between 0-0 and Libreville.
Of course, it’s not a confluence, but 0° E 51.48°N is not a bad place to meet (it’s in Greenwich Park, next to the Royal Observatory there). I’ve been there (more or less), and to the point about half-way between the two nearest confluences (0° E 51.5°N – next to North Greenwich tube station).
For more possibilities for sites for our first “Confluence Party” check out Special Visits.
Upthread I zoomed in on the Geographical Center of the Contiguous 48 States, which turns out to be about as far from a confluence as any we have posted for our own nearest ones.
Check out missred’s nearest for the closest to Tennessee’s midpoint which is about halfway from that spot toward Murfreesboro. Check this map.
Anybody with the urge to do it could locate their own state’s center point and show us the closest confluence to it.
I’m bumping this instead of linking back to it because I have had bad luck with the latter approach with other older threads.
I had a new idea for some trivia geekery that I’m hoping to get some input from you fans about.
The basic idea is to select four cities / towns in the USA (contiguous 48 states) that represent the places that are halfway from Lebanon, Kansas (the alleged center of the 48 contiguous states) and the extremes of the NW, SW, SE and NE points of the country.
Using those four cities as reference points in a poll, have Dopers pick which of those four is nearest their home. If Lebanon, KS, is closer, they could also say so , or any of those other extremes as well.
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Here’s some preliminary data I have collected, and I’d love to hear ideas on how to proceed with this project.
Modern methodology has identified the location as Latitude 39.828127, Longitude -98.579404
The geographic center of the contiguous United States is a point near the town of Lebanon, Kansas (Lat. 39°50’ Long. -98°35’).
It is located about 2.6 miles northwest of the center of Lebanon, Kansas.
It has been regarded as such by the U.S. National Geodetic Survey (NGS) since the 1912 additions of New Mexico and Arizona to the United States.
It is located at 39°50’N 98°35’W.
48°N 124°W – Port Angeles, WA (NW) The distance from Port Angeles, Washington to Lebanon, Kansas is approximately 1355.3 miles (2181.1 km).
33°N 119°W – San Diego, CA (SW) The distance from Lebanon, Kansas to San Diego, California is approximately 1141.4 miles (1837.0 km).
47°N 68°W – Van Buren, ME (NE) The distance from Van Buren, Maine to Lebanon, Kansas is approximately 1604.0 miles (2581.5 km).
25°N 81°W – Marathon, FL (SE) The distance from Marathon, Florida to Lebanon, Kansas is approximately 1454.6 miles (2340.9 km).
The distance from Port Angeles, Washington to Marathon, Florida is approximately 2804.1 miles (4512.8 km).
The distance from Van Buren, Maine to San Diego, California is approximately 2736.7 miles (4404.2 km).
Halfway NE-SW (47-33) (119-68) [40 - 93.5] Laredo, MO The distance from Lebanon, Kansas to Laredo, Missouri is approximately 270.5 miles (435.4 km).
Halfway NW-SE (48-25) (124-81) [36.5 - 102.5] Boise City, OK The distance from Lebanon, Kansas to Boise City, Oklahoma is approximately 301.6 miles (485.4 km).
The distance from Laredo, Missouri to Boise City, Oklahoma is approximately 540.4 miles (869.7 km).
