Where Are the Four Corners on a Globe?

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: One Comment, a Bit Prematurely Under a Long Video · New blog on the kid: Where Are the Four Corners on a Globe? · But What About the West and East Lines?

SW Cape Horn
55°58′48″S 67°17′21″W
NW Point Barrow
71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W
NE Anadyr (town)
64°44′N 177°31′E
SE Hobart
42°52′50″S 147°19′30″E

Now, if any massive inhabited land protrudes far North of a line between Point Barrow and Anadyr, or South of a line from Cape Horn to Hobart, that would be a fifth or possibly even sixth corner. Greenland may protrude North, but Godt-Haab or Nuuk won't, I predict.

Let's couple them two by two, South first, North then. Let's also round the seconds to nearest minute, and convert degrees to multiples of 60 minutes, as well as translating "W" into "-E", whereon we take 11 intermediates by calibrated mediums from (11 W + 1 E) / 12 to (1 W + 11 E) / 12, same for the N / N or S / S coordinates, and from then on assemble the coordinates and see where they lead on Google maps.

SW Cape Horn
3359'S -4037'E
SE Hobart
2573'S 8840'E

54°53'30"S 49°24'W, sea. 53°48'S 31°31'W, sea, close by S. Georgia and Sandwich Isles 52°43'S 13°38'W, sea, between Sandwich Islands and Africa 51°37'S 4°15'E, sea, closer to Africa 50°31'30"S 22°8'E sea, South of South Africa

49°26'S 40°1'30"E sea, South of Mozambique 48°20'30"S 57°55'E sea, between Alfred Faure and French Antarctic Islands 47°15'S 75°48'E sea, East of French Antarctic Islands 46°9'S 93°41'E sea, between these and Perth 45°4'S 111°34'E sea, SSW of Perth 43°58'30"S 129°27'E sea, South of the Great Australian Bay and of the frontier West Australia to South Australia

Cape Horn and Hobart easily qualify as South corners, the line between them is just sea, south of the continents.

Now, what about Point Barrow and Anadyr?

NW Point Barrow
4283'N -9389'E
NE Anadyr (town)
3884'N 10651'E

70°50'N 128°39'W sea, North of the Anderson River Delta 70°16'30"N 100°49'W sea within islands, North of the midpoint between Ikaluktutiak and Gjoa Haven 69°43'N 72°59'W land, Baffin Island 69°10'N 45°9'W land, Ice sheet inland from Claushavn, Greenland 68°37'N 17°19'W sea, East of Greenland, North of Iceland

68°3'30"N 10°31'E sea, offcoast from Lofoten in Norway 67°30'N 38°21'E land, Kola Peninsula close to ESE of Murmansk 66°57'N 66°11'E land, between Vorkuta and Salekhard 66°24'N 94°1'E land, just South of Putorana Nature Reserve 65°50'N 121°51'E land, close to Bakhanay 65°17'N 149°41'E land, between Susuman and Srednokolymsk

Let's check the 30 largest cities or towns in Russia by population. Let's then check which one of them is furthest North. OK, 40 for good measure. Astrakhan is n° 40 and has c. 520,339 inhabitants. Moscow is 1 and has 13,010,112 inhabitants. Let's estimate how much is covered here. First by medium of the extremes, then by median.

Divide by two and multiply by 40, or simplify, multiply by 20.

(13,010,112 + 520,339) * 20 = 270,609,020 (more than 143,679,916, the Russian population excluding Crimea)

20 and 21 are: Barnaul and Izhevsk

(612,401 + 627,733) * 20 = 24,802,680 (far less than 143,679,916, the Russian population excluding Crimea, 17.26 % only)

This won't work, I'll have to add the populations together instead. 49,654,759 or 34.56 %. Second furthest North of these is Perm 58°00′N 56°19′E.

Saint Petersburg with 59°56′15″N 30°18′31″E is furthest North of the big cities, it is in fact the second city of Russia.

Let's check how far down in the list we get before we get as far North as coordinates mentioned on the line. I'm cutting off a copy-paste at Murmansk, as it is this far North. It's 71, so we are taking on potentially 30 more down to Sterlitamak, which is 70. Surgut is 48, and the first one further North than Saint Petersburg. 61°15′N 73°26′E, still further South than 64°44'N. Yakutsk is 51, it has 62°01′48″N 129°43′48″E as coordinates. Arkhangelsk is getting closeish, with 64°32′35″N 40°32′15″E, we are minutes, not degrees, South of the chosen NE corner. And we are already at n°66. Yes, I made it down to Sterlitamak, n°70, without getting above or to 64°44'N. We have added 10,573,943 to the population living in cities South of our line.

49,654,759 + 10,573,943 = 60,228,702

We are now at 41.92 % of Russia's population, and please take into account, most cities and towns smaller than Murmansk are also South of our line. Very typically, Russian cities are at the same latitude or further South than Moscow, or a little less often between the latitudes between Moscow and St. Petersburg, the latter being far less typical for the inbetween latitudes. I would surmise, the vast majority of Russians live South of this line.

I think one can say that Point Barrow and Anadyr also qualify as corners. As North corners.

Is there anyone who argues that Point Barrow and Cape Horn don't qualify as West corners or that Anadyr and Hobart don't qualify as East corners? You might just have parts of California to the West of the one line and Sydney and Wellington to the East of the other ....

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Pope St. Damasus I
11.XII.2024

Romae sancti Damasi Primi, Papae et Confessoris; qui Apollinarem haeresiarcham damnavit, et Petrum, Episcopum Alexandrinum, fugatum restituit; multa etiam sanctorum Martyrum corpora invenit, eorumque memorias versibus exornavit.