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Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 18:51:48 GMT
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fw:Re:Re: geographical center of the continents <fwd>
Sender: [log in to unmask]



One of my colleagues has pointed out that Rugby,
North Dakota has long claimed the title of geographical center of North America.
See http://www.roadsideamerica.com/map/nd.html.
Coordinates of Rugby are -99.991,48.367

I tried Albers' 1/6 rule with projection origin at the center of the mapextent.  With the Alaska-mainland Canada-lower 48, I came up with centroid at -101.477 50.730 (in Canada).
I added in Mexico and the centroid shifted to
-101.562, 48.105 (North Dakota)
I added in the rest of Central America and the centroid shifted to -100.853,47.227 (still in North Dakota)

Now if we add in the islands of Northern Canada and (Greenland?), (West Indies?), that would shift the centroid to the east -- so unless you count surface water between mainland North America and say, Hawaii, the centroid of North America cannot possibly be in Utah.






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