I'm pretty sure that for this purpose, either mapping the earth to a perfect sphere, or using the slice approach (it won't be an ellipse since we're being pedantic) will answer the question.
The latitude/longitude lines in this post were very carefully chosen to just barely knick several countries’ borders and pass over small islands. Differences in the definition of the line certainly will matter for figuring out all of the edge cases here.
On account of the vastness of the Pacific ocean, there's broad scope for the antipodeal intersection to be outside of any nation state.
Someone (Charles Darwin's son George?) proposed that the Pacific basin was a consequence of the moon being spun off from the Earth, but plate tectonics put an end to that theory.
They don’t need width for this do they? You could think of them as a set of points which have 0 area, but a region can still contain the points, so which set of points is overlapped by the most regions? I’m pretty sure U’ve got a bad idea there about width.
"In fact there is quite a wide band, between the westernmost point of Bulgaria at 22°31'35.2"E, and the easternmost point of Slovakia at 22°33'32.1", which passes through no less than 26 countries. This is 22 km wide at the equator, but obviously narrows as you get closer to the poles."
This line passes right on the Delphi, Greece. Known as the center of earth (Ομφαλός της γης), named by the ancient Greek people. coincidence? I think so.
I'm trying to identify exactly what the borders of "the Delphi" are. UNESCO identifies it as "between two towering rocks of Mt. Parnassus". Liakouras is said to be the highest peak of Parnassus - would the Delphi be between there and the second highest peak?
38 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 89.9 ms ] threadI guess you can find the “great ellipse” on a slice passing through the center.
Someone (Charles Darwin's son George?) proposed that the Pacific basin was a consequence of the moon being spun off from the Earth, but plate tectonics put an end to that theory.
https://imgur.com/r/Mapporn/QDeiIpc
http://lunarorigin.com/lunar-origin-models/
I must have missed the bit where he explained why a band of 700m or whatever was optimal
"In fact there is quite a wide band, between the westernmost point of Bulgaria at 22°31'35.2"E, and the easternmost point of Slovakia at 22°33'32.1", which passes through no less than 26 countries. This is 22 km wide at the equator, but obviously narrows as you get closer to the poles."
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/393
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_Wisconsin