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Where Is the Center of the US?

Posted 8 years ago
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7 Replies

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POSTED BY: EDITORIAL BOARD

Very nice analysis! How do these points compare to the 'core' of the country; the point furthest away from the boundary:

rawpolygon=Polygon/@Map[Reverse,Entity["Country","UnitedStates"]["Polygon"][[1,1]],{2}];
rawpolygon=First@TakeLargestBy[rawpolygon,Area,1]; (* main land *)
r=DiscretizeGraphics[rawpolygon];

srdf=SignedRegionDistance[r];
pts=RandomPoint[r,750];   (* get some random points inside this region *)

sols=Quiet[FindMinimum[srdf[{x,y}],{x,#[[1]]},{y,#[[2]]}]]&/@pts;  (* minimize the distance function starting from various points *)
sols={#1,{x,y}/.#2}&@@@sols; 
min=First[TakeSmallestBy[sols,First,1]] (* get the one that is furthest away *)

Show[{r,Graphics[Point[min[[2]]]]}]

Giving:

{-9.88794, {-98.1595, 39.1123}}

enter image description here

One could be even more elaborate by using GeoDistance such as to correct for the elliptical shape of the earth...

POSTED BY: Sander Huisman

That's a very nifty way of finding that point! I was unaware of the name of this point, interesting name. Somehow I missed it on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extreme_points_of_the_United_States

Thanks for sharing.

POSTED BY: Sander Huisman

Nice Job!

I like your approach, However we all know that the center of the entire world is in New York City: (spoken like a true New Yorker!)

enter image description here

POSTED BY: Neil Singer

After Amsterdam, your New Amsterdam makes a good second ;)

POSTED BY: Sander Huisman

(I'm just holding onto this first reply for if I get the chance to calculate these for all 50 states as opposed to just the conterminous states.)

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