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Couldn't this also be solved by simply making the plots of land without right angled corners? I'm guessing there is a simple tiling solution that would solve t
by ghshephard 11y ago
Couldn't this also be solved by simply making the plots of land without right angled corners? I'm guessing there is a simple tiling solution that would solve the problem without requiring detours.
- dmurray 11y agoNot while satisfying the requirement that each piece of land be six miles square, with the boundaries running north-south and east-west. In fact that's impossible to do for a single piece of land that does not straddle the equator. One solution would have been to make each parcel of land 36 square miles, with the parcels getting taller and narrower further north.
- ghshephard 11y agoIf the boundaries are running magnetic north-south, then there is no way to make the property square. I'm sure there is a good reason to survey the lands as squares, rather than as trapezoids with the north/south borders running along the lines of longitude - just not sure what it is right now. The farmer wouldn't care - they would simply survey their property based on the property stakes - and, at 6 miles, their property corners would be close enough to right-angles they probably wouldn't notice, and certainly wouldn't care. And roads could then run all the way to the north pole, or from coast to coast, without having to detour (mountains, lakes, cities, rivers and other obstacles excepted).