Mike's method only works for rectangles. If we want the centroid of the
land area of Europe, we need to divide the continent into small,
regularly-shaped areas such as rectangles or triangles; get the centroid
of each small area from the corner coordinates, and then do a weight
average of all the x coordinates of these centroids weighted by the area
of the small unit, and likelwise for the y coordinates. For the
population center, we would weight the coordinates by the populations of
the small units, instead of by their areas.
David
On Fri, 8 Dec 2000, Arif Samad wrote:
> As far as I know, the midpoint of the rectangle drawn
> with the four extreme meridians is generally
> considered the center of a certain place. It should
> be what Mike did. I wouldn't be surprised if it is
> near Minsk. Perspective can often cloud facts. So,
> even if it seems like the center is more to the west
> than that, it probably isn't.
> There generally is no weighted system to calculate
> midpoints on landmasses. Sometimes population is
> weighted to create a population center, though.
>
> --- Jesper & Nicolette Nielsen <jesniel@...>
> wrote:
> > Anyone else want to have a go on where the center of
> > Europe is?
> >
> > Jesper
> >
> > > >>notes in answer to questions someone raised
> > earlier
> > > >>
> > > >>easternmost europe appears to lie on crest of
> > north urals at about 66 east
> > > >>longitude
> > > >>
> > > >>center of europe computed by simply averaging
> > geocoords of extremities
> > > >>is about 29e longitude & 53 or 54n latitude
> > > >>which falls perhaps 100km southeast of minsk
> > > >>surprise
> > > >>
> > > >>however this is probably quite distinct from the
> > true geographic center
> > > >>which i havent a clue how to compute
> > >
> > > btw does anyone know this
> > >
> > > m
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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