Talk:Extreme points of the world

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[edit] Easternmost and westernmost

From a point of view that's very possible the earthenmost and westernmost places on earth must not only be in the 180th meridian, they must be, simultaneously, the closest to the equator possible, if not in the equator itself... So that would be a nice addendum to the article...

I'm not sure why that would make them any further east or west, but if you can find a reference that this is an opinion which had been aired, then we could add them. Warofdreams talk 02:15, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Computing distances from Earth's centre

For the record, the radius of an ellipse of semi-minor axis b (6356.78 km) and semi-major axis a (6378.14 km), at latitude λ (measured at the centre), is:

r^2 = \frac{a^2b^2}{b^2 + (a^2-b^2)\sin^2{\lambda}}

And thus we have:

Place Latitude Altitude (m) Radius (km)
Mount Everest 27°59'16" 8,850 6375.6
Mount Chimborazo 1°28' 6,310 6378.1
Mariana Trench 11°19' -10,911 6377.7
Arctic ocean 90° -4,000 6356.8

Urhixidur 16:48, 2005 Mar 28 (UTC)

[edit] Now for bonus points

What are the extreme inhabited points? Rmhermen 05:49, Mar 29, 2005 (UTC)

Meaning what? The most densely populated spots?
Urhixidur 17:31, 2005 Mar 29 (UTC)
Oh, I see. No I just meant furthest north, furthest south, most isolated, etc. Rmhermen 20:41, Mar 29, 2005 (UTC)
See Northernmost settlements and Southernmost settlements as a starter. Warofdreams 09:28, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Southernmost island?

Which island is the most to the south? --Palnatoke 13:57, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

Looking at the List of antarctic and sub-antarctic islands, my bet would be Roosevelt Island, inside the Ross Sea, at 79°25′S 162°00′W. Its hard to be sure because the "sea-level" line is icebound and hard to delineate. Maybe a better question would be which island is ice-free and most to the south?
Urhixidur 22:17, 2005 September 11 (UTC)
Maybe the "Sandwich" Islands? or South Shetland Islands? (Don't have the wikilink handy) --Sebastian Kessel Talk 15:14, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Peter I Island is further south than them, but our map of Antarctica suggests that there are some ice free islands off Victoria Land - can anyone their names? Warofdreams talk 16:21, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
It seems they are named Scott Island and Balerry Islands, according to a zoom of the map on Victoria Land's page. But, Peter I Island doesn't look very much "Ice free"... --Sebastian Kessel Talk 16:27, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
Yes, you may be right there. [1] is useful - it comes up with Duke of York Island at 71deg38S. It's not clear, but Coulman Island at 73deg28S may be surrounded by water (although as it has glaciers, it's not really ice free). But there could be some even further south. Warofdreams talk 16:39, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
According to the article, is a Coulman "an ice-covered island"... Let's stick with the Shetlands and we'll update if we find something else. --Sebastian Kessel Talk 17:42, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
But Duke of York Island is definitely ice-free and much further south! Warofdreams talk 09:26, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
According to my atlas, Franklin Island lies at about 76 degrees South, but still far north of the permanent ice of the Ross Ice Shelf. There is also an unnamed little island north of Ross Island, at 77 degrees. I think this is Beaufort Island, at 76deg56. Eugene van der Pijll 23:07, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

So be it, then. :) --Sebastian Kessel Talk 16:05, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

Warofdreams, that's a great link to the Antarctica gazetteer! It looks like it's a work by the U.S. government, and therefore public domain, so I've just created a Duke of York Island article straight from that page. I think I'm going to mention this gazetteer at the Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles... Eugene van der Pijll 16:52, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
Thank you! I don't know much about the copyright status of U.S. government works, but please go ahead and mention it - perhaps we could use it in the same manner as the 1911 encyclopaedia? Warofdreams talk 17:19, 27 September 2005 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/Antarctica and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/Antarctica. Eugene van der Pijll 22:32, 27 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

I've suggested that The world's most northern be merged into this article. Tell me what you think. --Newguineafan 17:03, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

sure, is the a world's most southern article?? mexaguil 05:16, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

make a worlds most southern section, then u can add the worlds most northern page above it

Bourbons3 13:52, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

The two seem to be quite different in content. I don't have any strong feelings, but think they could easily be kept separate. And as Mexaguil suggests, add a most southern article too - MPF 01:22, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

I'd prefer to keep the two articles separate. The content is quite different and of a different nature - "extreme" is mostly geographical whereas "most northern" includes more unusual... I don't think the world's most northerly golf course really sits with most northerly island! Definitely keep them separate. Iancaddy 12:44, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

This has run for nearly two months; the voting seems to be for keeping them separate, so I'm deleting the merge tags now - MPF 21:36, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Centre??

What does the section about the points that are the "center" of the world have to do with extreme points of the world? It seems kind of offtopic, considering the center is not extreme. --Michael WhiteT·C 15:47, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

The center is an extreme in the way that as a relative feature is absolute, i.e. in a circle divided between "north, south, west, east" the northernmost point is defined as "farthest point in the northern section in relation to the southernmost, easternmost and westernmost points", a similiar definition goes for the other extremes, and with this the center happens to be "farthest point within the circle from the northenmost, easternmost, westernmost and southernmost points". My point really is that its all 'bout perspective...

I would like to agree with Michael that 'center' cities at least do not belong in this article. The simple reason is that these points have no basis in geography: they are not geographically extreme in any way. Rather, they are slogans. Given the fact that neither Istel nor Dali are experts of geography, nor are their claims recognized by any majority of people or world governments, I do not believe these sayings belong here.
As an example of why this section will not stand scrutiny, consider the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I happen to know that there is a monument in the city describing itself as 'The Center of the Universe', with an obelisk that no doubt rivals Felicity's pyrimid. I would not be surprised if hundreds or even thousands of other cities around the world make similar claims. What, then, would stop people from adding each of these cities to the list, making this section longer than the rest of the article combined?
The fact that this article does not and cannot include every city in the world calling itself the center makes it necessarily P.O.V., currently towards the United States. Furthermore, the topic of this section (slogans) does not fit with the rest of the article (geography), and I am therefore going to delete it. Âme Errante 20:53, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
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