Subject: Re: Can a point also be a border?
Date: Apr 16, 2002 @ 13:24
Author: acroorca2002 ("acroorca2002" <orc@...>)
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--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "drpotatoes" <drpotatoes@h...> wrote:
> 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