what fun to come in 3 minutes apart after 2 days
answering all the same questions
& i agree with all you say except as noted below
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, Brendan Whyte <bwhyte@u...>
wrote:
> At 07:50 AM 26/11/2004 +0000, BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com wrote:
>
> > > Which country has the greatest coastline to area ratio?
>
> I would guess chile: long and thin, with lots of coastal islands.
> But any island archipelago country (indonesia? philippines,
kiribati) would
> do well. Atolls in particular:
> But this simple sounding question raises issues:
> do you count the inside of the atoll ring as sea?
> define 'land' exactly... low tide elevations? Remember some
countries are
> still arguing over whether low tide elevations are land for
purposes of
> drawing maritime boundaries.
> how 'fractal' do you go on coastline measurement. Remember that if
you go
> to the infinite limits of fractal measurement then ALL countries
would come
> out equally, because your ration of coast to surface area is
infinity over
> a non-infinite rational number.
> It all comes down to the age-old question:
> "how long is the coastline of Britain?"
> And this will be the problem with using available statistics: each
country
> will measure its land area and coastline in a different way, so the
figures
> are not comparable. Ever tried looking up the area of the US on the
> internet? You get 20 different answers from 20 different US govt
> departments. Ditto with even small 'easy' countries like the
Netherlands or
> Denmark. Which is correct? All of them, and none of them.
>
>
> > > Is there any country every point in which is nearer to every
other
> >point in which than it is to any point in any other country?
>
> The most circular country.
So leaving aside islands like Nauru or Niue
> where the answer is trivial, you want a circular country like
Uruguay, or
> Swaziland or Lesotho. I suspect the last two are the winners of
this
> competition.
these do not answer the question as actually posed
only the trivial faraway island countries meet all the terms asked
>
> See more comments below.
me too
>
> > >
> > > If you know the answers to these-or know where I can find them
out-
> >I'd be very glad to hear from you!
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Daniel
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Peter Hering [mailto:hering@m...]
> > > Sent: 24 November 2004 09:16
> > > To: Daniel Hill
> > > Subject: Re: enclaves
> > >
> > > Good morning Daniel !
> > >
> > > * believe it or not - but your enquiry has started a big
discussion
> > > on the term "enclave" - in order to answer YOUR question it is
ab-
> > > solutely essential to being able to define the term "enclave"...
> > >
> > > * if we stick to the definition: part of a nation that is
separated
> > > from the motherland by another territory (and NOT a body of
water)
> > > then the answer to your question would be
> > >
> > > - for Europe:
> > >
> > > 1- Büsingen: only 600 metres from Germany (over Swiss territ.)
> > > 2- Llivia: - ca. 1 km - Spain (- French - )
> > > 3- Campione: - - 1 km - Italy (- Swiss - )
> > > 4- Baarle Nassau: - 5 km - Belgium (- Dutch - )
> > > 5- Vennbahn enclaves: diff. distances from Germany (o. Belgian
t.)
> > >
> > > 6- Kaliningrad enclave (the WINNER!): ca. 370 km from Russia
(over
> > > Lithuanian and Belaruss. territory)
> > >
>
> Kaliningrad *IS* separated from mother Russia by water: The Baltic.
regardless
it is still not an enclave
again the terms of the question as actually asked please
neither oranges nor apples but pineapples were asked for
So it
> is in a completely different league to the others. You are
comparing apples
> and oranges. Also, it is much larger than the others, so it is more
> self-sufficient, and can survive so far away: because it is big and
because
> it has sea access.
> Llivia would not have survived 400 years as part of Spain if it was
the
> same size as it is now, but 340km inside France!
>
>
> Dr Brendan Whyte
> Assistant Map Curator
> ERC Library
> University of Melbourne
> Vic 3010
> AUSTRALIA
> bwhyte@u...