US states that are farthest by longitude North? South? East? West? Quiz by boilerup39

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US State Farthest By Cardinal Directions Quiz

by boilerup39

Created Oct 19, 2010 in Geography
Game Plays 912

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	newenglander:	Oct 19th, 2010 at 19:29 GMT		5 points
	yeah, i've heard that whole argument about how alaska the furthest east since part of it is the eastern hemisphere. but maine is the easternmost state plane and simple

	goofymuffin:	Oct 19th, 2010 at 20:24 GMT		3 points
	Interesting...

	dancastro:	Oct 19th, 2010 at 23:51 GMT		8 points
	Saying that Alaska has a part in the eastern hemisphere (and that therefore it is the easternmost state) is purely conventional. This is so because the longitudes are reckoned from Greenwich. But if you choose other origin (like in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the prime meridian was that of Hierro in the Canary Islands), all the 50 states would be in the western hemisphere. What really matters is the geographical position, independently from the origin of longitudes, and Maine is undoubtedly to the east of Alaska.

	ballabosh:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 00:41 GMT		7 points
	Except unlike latitude, there is no point where moving east stops being moving east. If you're going north at some point you will necessarily have to start moving south. East/west doesn't work that way, so if you keep going east from Maine you will eventually come to Alaska (and every other state). So as Maine is east of Alaska, Alaska is also east of Maine. Conversely Maine is also west of Alaska. So it's a matter of interpretation which needs to be defined in the instructions.

	dancastro:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 02:30 GMT		5 points
	@ballabosh: technically what you say is absolutely correct. But it isn't what is commonly understood by "east" and "west". You can say that the 6th Avenue in Manhattan is east of the 5th Avenue: if from the 5th Ave. you follow the parallel of New York going east, you'll eventually arrive to the 6th Ave. The difference is that going east you have to go around the world, and going west you only have to walk one block. Therefore, people say that 6th Ave. is west of 5th Ave. If you go west from Maine, after traveling roughly 120º in longitude you are in Alaska. If you go east, you have to travel roughly 240º. Therefore, the common sense interpretation is that Alaska is west of Maine.

	sobdennis:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 02:47 GMT		4 points
	Generally speaking, Maine is considered the easternmost state. But I can see the argument for Alaska. It is getting a bit picky IMO, though.

	Westbranch:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 03:32 GMT		0 points
	Unless the 180th meridian is considered authoritative, what's considered 'east' or 'west' will never be quite absolute. For example, from the vantage point of the Ural mountains, Europe and America are the "West" while Asia is the "East". But from the vantage point of the Pacific ocean, Asia (or the "East") is in fact the west, and Europe and America (or the "West") is in fact the east. For someone living on Guam (which styles itself as "where America's day begins") Alaska is in the east and Maine is in the west. Because of this relativism, it's best to simply to use the 180th meridian as the east/west determinant, and hence this quiz is correct.

	NYCub:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 04:52 GMT		3 points
	@dancastro By that argument, Japan is west of the US, because it's less distance to travel there if you head west.

	adamnvillani:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 05:52 GMT		5 points
	I think it's best to think of the question of "what is the easternmost point in X" as meaning "what is the easternmost point in X, in a frame of reference centered in X?" Unless you have something that truly spans the globe, that's an unambiguous definition that puts all U.S. territory in one hemisphere (and has Maine as the easternmost point in the country).

	tomahaha:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 17:02 GMT		-2 points
	easy, you would go by the international date line. If that is how we determine time then how can Alaska be furthest east when it's a day later? Due to the date line, Maine must then be considered furthest east and NOT Alaska.

	TheBigE1980:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 17:18 GMT		3 points
	There needs to be way more questions for this quiz to be worth it. There are so many extremes to the U.S. that it could become a very good quiz.

	sportsguyluke:	Oct 20th, 2010 at 20:08 GMT		3 points
	Too Hawaii-centric.

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	cnam:	Nov 14th, 2010 at 19:56 GMT		3 points
	maine is definitely the easternmost state. Even though alaska is in the eastern hemisphere, inrelativity to the us as a whole, maine is the easternmost!

	boilerup39:	Dec 13th, 2010 at 00:26 GMT		3 points
	ok since apparently there seems to be a lot of people angered by this I changed the question to add "by longitude" And FYI there are a small handfull of alaskan islands that stretch across the international date line, including Semisopochnoi Island http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semisopochnoi_Island Therefore BY LONGITUDE Alaska is the easternmost state Thank You for your comments

	british:	May 19th, 2011 at 02:29 GMT		1 point
	cnam your comment makes no sense. alaska IS part of the US. it is one of the 50 states. and it does cross the international dateline, making it the most eastern state, as well as the most northern and the most western(right before it crosses the I.D.L) The I.D.L is the line where on the left of it, the day begins first, and on the right, the day begins last.