This is what I posted on Jungholz earlier, more and less the same issue:

Jungholz is connected to the rest of Austria by a single point. That is already established.

On the other hand Germany is also connected with herself at that point. Right? So if Germany is connected, then Jungholz is disconnected ie an enclave?

Who owns the point? No man's land or a condominium? If a point is no man's land then Jungholz is a fragtment (as it is touched by no man's land and Germany).

If condominium then Jungholz is also a fragtment as it is touched by Germany/Austria and Austria!

Am I too technical?

Jesper

----- Original Message -----

From: drpotatoes

To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 9:48 AM

Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Can a point also be a border?

Hi all, I've been wondering about this one for a while, and since I'm a newbie to the the group it's quite possible that the subject has come up at some point and I just don't know about it. If so please let me know what post it is under. The question I pose is this: can a point, more specifically a quadrapoint (quinta or even more), also be a border? Take Four Corners, USA for example. Is it correct to say that New Mexico and Utah 'border' one another? Or Arizona and Colorado? This is as much of a geometry question as it is geography. So I looked up a few basic terms. The term 'point', in geometry, according to ask.com, is this: "A point is one of the basic terms in geometry. We may think of a point as a "dot" on a piece of paper. We identify this point with a number or letter. A point has no length or width, it just specifies an exact location." Ok fine, a point has no width or length. So then I searched for 'border' and 'boundary' in the dictionary. According to dictionary.com, one of the definitions for 'border' is: "The line or frontier area separating political divisions or geographic regions; a boundary" also "To lie along or adjacent to the border of: Canada borders the United States" and a search for 'boundary' produces: "That which indicates or fixes a limit or extent, or marks a bound, as of a territory; a bounding or separating line; a real or imaginary limit" also " the line or plane indicating the limit or extent of something [syn: bound, bounds] 2: a line determining the limits of an area [syn: edge, bound]" So clearly 'border' or 'boundary' is a line (or arguably a vertical plane into space considering a nation's right to control it's own airspace). If I remember correctly from my 10th grade geometry class (which i took while I living in New Mexico, so I have been thinking about this one for 10+ years) that a line is a series of points and can't be one single point by definition. If a point has no width, then do New Mexico and Utah even touch at all? If so, would it then be on almost a microscopic or molecular level at which they do touch? If it is determined that they do touch (which I am not so certain at this point, no pun intended!), would it be correct to say that the two states 'border' one another? Or to say that they just meet at one point? But a point can't be a border, since a border is defined as a line. So I ask you, can a point be a border? Victor

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