In a post by MathTeacher which dealt with finding the Geographical Center of a county, state or even the United States it is quite clear that
there is no agreement on how to calculate the position.
I found in a reference (that I did not know existed) that Oscar S. Adams (Senior Mathematician, U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey) had written
a two page article on the subject in The Military Engineer (Vol. XXIV, No. 138, pg. 586-587, 1932).
This is his closing remarks; " It is inevitable that there are as many geographical centers of a state or country or other area as there are
persons determining them. Any Reasonable method employed will give a center as satisfactory as any other one. This is a case which all
may differ but all be right ".
Not much has changed in 85 years.
JOHN NOLTON
Hopefully they would all be within jogging distance of one another....;)
I've got to tell this story...sorry if it hijacks the thread.
Most of us at least know who Mark Deal was. For those that don't; Mark started an internet chat board ('98 or '97 ???) he called RPLS.com. Mark's surveying company's website and email was @RPLS.com. It was a huge success. POB eventually approached Mark and bought the rights to RPLS.com, began operating the chat board with success and we all know the rest of the story.
I happened in to Mark's office one day and he had a long thin needle attached in a vertical position to a wooden stake on his desk. Upon the head of this needle he was attempting to balance what looked to me to be an irregular piece of stock board paper. He was deep into the meld....
He almost acted irritated when I asked him what he was doing. I saw the x-acto knife, straight edge and scale. I looked at this monitor. I realized he had cut out a scale footprint of a very large residence with probably 50 corners or more. He explained the ordinance in the city he was working required "the center of mass" of a structure to be at some predictable distance from an adjoiner's structure. And he had apparently gotten only "cricket sounds" from the city officials when he asked how they preferred the "center of mass" to be calculated.
He actually found a spot where he could balance the chunk of posterboard on the head of a large carpet needle. He pronounced that point the structure's center of mass. The city did not argue.
Nothing quite like empirical evidence to make a point.
paden cash, post: 417246, member: 20 wrote: Hopefully they would all be within jogging distance of one another....;)
I've got to tell this story...sorry if it hijacks the thread.
Most of us at least know who Mark Deal was. For those that don't; Mark started an internet chat board ('98 or '97 ???) he called RPLS.com. Mark's surveying company's website and email was @RPLS.com. It was a huge success. POB eventually approached Mark and bought the rights to RPLS.com, began operating the chat board with success and we all know the rest of the story.
I happened in to Mark's office one day and he had a long thin needle attached in a vertical position to a wooden stake on his desk. Upon the head of this needle he was attempting to balance what looked to me to be an irregular piece of stock board paper. He was deep into the meld....
He almost acted irritated when I asked him what he was doing. I saw the x-acto knife, straight edge and scale. I looked at this monitor. I realized he had cut out a scale footprint of a very large residence with probably 50 corners or more. He explained the ordinance in the city he was working required "the center of mass" of a structure to be at some predictable distance from an adjoiner's structure. And he had apparently gotten only "cricket sounds" from the city officials when he asked how they preferred the "center of mass" to be calculated.
He actually found a spot where he could balance the chunk of posterboard on the head of a large carpet needle. He pronounced that point the structure's center of mass. The city did not argue.
I can't believe I have been reading these survey boards for 30 years! Thanks for reminding me and remembering Mark Deal. Jp
Whoops 20 years reading these boards! Jp
That kind of math will cost you jobs. ;););););)
[USER=225]@JOHN NOLTON[/USER] That's a good piece of research. Dr. Adams was once a math teacher, so we know that he's always right.
MathTeacher said in above post "Dr. Adams was once a math teacher, so we know that he's always right".
MathTeacher you are absolutely positively correct.
Do you have the article by the way?
JOHN NOLTON
No, I don't, but I would like to have it.
Although not the geographic center, which shouldn't change except because of the method by which it is determined, the Center of Population in California has been tracked by decade going all the way back to 1880. The trend has been been a slow migration southerly along the major highway corridors from 1880, until 1990, after which it has somewhat stabilized. The exception to the pattern was from 1940 to 1950, when it jumped back to the north. My speculation is that it was because of the massive military bases operating at their heights in Northern California during WW II. The Geographic center is also depicted on this graphic, but I know there a couple of small towns near that location who have been battling over the claim to that title for some time.
MathTeacher go into my bio here at rpls and send me a note to my po box and I will send you a copy ASAP.
JOHN NOLTON
