Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] Center of Europe<br/>
Date: Dec 09, 2000 @ 05:21<br/>
Author: michael donner (michael donner &lt;m@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-962956703">right<br/>
this must be how to do it<br/>
<br/>
so do you know what the correct answer would be by this method<br/>
<br/>
or rather can you at least venture a wild guess at it<br/>
as i gather the geometry & computation must be pretty formidable<br/>
<br/>
m<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="qreply"> &gt;<br/>
&gt;Mike&#39;s method only works for rectangles.  If we want the centroid of the<br/>
&gt;land area of Europe, we need to divide the continent into small,<br/>
&gt;regularly-shaped areas such as rectangles or triangles; get the centroid<br/>
&gt;of each small area from the corner coordinates, and then do a weight<br/>
&gt;average of all the x coordinates of these centroids weighted by the area<br/>
&gt;of the small unit, and likelwise for the y coordinates.  For the<br/>
&gt;population center, we would weight the coordinates by the populations of<br/>
&gt;the small units, instead of by their areas.<br/>
&gt;<br/>
&gt;David<br/>
&gt;<br/>
&gt;On Fri, 8 Dec 2000, Arif Samad wrote:<br/>
&gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; As far as I know, the midpoint of the rectangle drawn<br/>
&gt;&gt; with the four extreme meridians is generally<br/>
&gt;&gt; considered the center of a certain place.  It should<br/>
&gt;&gt; be what Mike did.  I wouldn&#39;t be surprised if it is<br/>
&gt;&gt; near Minsk.  Perspective can often cloud facts.  So,<br/>
&gt;&gt; even if it seems like the center is more to the west<br/>
&gt;&gt; than that, it probably isn&#39;t.<br/>
&gt;&gt; There generally is no weighted system to calculate<br/>
&gt;&gt; midpoints on landmasses.  Sometimes population is<br/>
&gt;&gt; weighted to create a population center, though.<br/>
&gt;&gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; --- Jesper & Nicolette Nielsen &lt;<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="mailto:jesniel@...">jesniel@...</a>&gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; wrote:<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; Anyone else want to have a go on where the center of<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; Europe is?<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; Jesper<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;notes in answer to questions someone raised<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; earlier<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;easternmost europe appears to lie on crest of<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; north urals at about 66 east<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;longitude<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;center of europe computed by simply averaging<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; geocoords of extremities<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;is about 29e longitude & 53 or 54n latitude<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;which falls perhaps 100km southeast of minsk<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;surprise<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;however this is probably quite distinct from the<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; true geographic center<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; &gt;&gt;which i havent a clue how to compute<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; btw does anyone know this<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt;<br/>
&gt;&gt; &gt; &gt; m </span></blockquote></div>