5 ms·

I didn't realize latitude and longitude lines have width.

• hateduser2 9y ago
  They don’t need width for this do they? You could think of them as a set of points which have 0 area, but a region can still contain the points, so which set of points is overlapped by the most regions? I’m pretty sure U’ve got a bad idea there about width.
  • isostatic 9y ago
    They don't. But the post has chosen arbitrary "bands" to squeeze more counties in, rather than infinitely thin lines. I must have missed the bit where he explained why a band of 700m or whatever was optimal
    • mining 9y ago
      There are infinitely many infinitely thin lines that fit in that band and cover the countries.
      • isostatic 9y ago
        Ahh yes, I missed the subtlety that Bulgaria and Slovakia overlapped
    • lozenge 9y ago
      All the countries are present throughout the 700m band.
• officemonkey 9y ago
  The fine article says: "In fact there is quite a wide band, between the westernmost point of Bulgaria at 22°31'35.2"E, and the easternmost point of Slovakia at 22°33'32.1", which passes through no less than 26 countries. This is 22 km wide at the equator, but obviously narrows as you get closer to the poles."
  • Taniwha 9y ago
    yes, I think the idea is that there's an infinite number of infinitely thin lines between 22°31'35.2"E, and 22°33'32.1"
    • labster 9y ago
      That idea sounds somewhat derivative.