Center

francky · Post by **francky** » Thu Jun 20, 2002 7:22 pm

Which place is the center of the EU?

Tiger · Post by **Tiger** » Thu Jun 20, 2002 7:54 pm

Brussels ?

Tiger · Post by **Tiger** » Thu Jun 20, 2002 7:54 pm

or maybe my room ?

BossaNova · Post by **BossaNova** » Thu Jun 20, 2002 8:02 pm

francky wrote:Which place is the center of the EU?

looking to the map, it looks to me that it's in Switzerland

what an irony

ag_pt · Post by **ag_pt** » Thu Jun 20, 2002 9:59 pm

The geodesic center of the european continent (not the european union) is (believe it or not) located in Lithuania. This seems strange because people are used to see the nordic countries reduced in size - and that is an effect of the more common map projections.

The geodesic center of the european union before 1995 (i.e., not counting with Austria, Sweden and Finland) was located in a small french village in the Lorraine area, near the border with Germany.

Now I suppose the geodesic center moved towards east and north, and I would point somewhere in west Germany, maybe in the Ruhr area. It's a guess.

ag_pt
Lisboa, Portugal (very far from the center but close to the sea!)

BossaNova · Post by **BossaNova** » Fri Jun 21, 2002 7:30 pm

ag_pt wrote:The geodesic center of the european continent (not the european union) is (believe it or not) located in Lithuania. This seems strange because people are used to see the nordic countries reduced in size - and that is an effect of the more common map projections.

curioso.. nunca imaginei.. mas de facto a escandinávia é muito maior do que aquilo que normalmente pensamos...

curious.. never thought that way.. but in fact, Scandinavia it's a lot bigger than we normally imagine...

Mr Euro · Post by **Mr Euro** » Fri Jun 21, 2002 8:47 pm

Yeah Yeah, In the Middle Ages people thought The Earth was the center of the universe. Do you really believe Lithuania is the Middle of Europe?

airis · Post by **airis** » Fri Jun 21, 2002 11:54 pm

Mr Euro wrote: Do you really believe Lithuania is the Middle of Europe?

I think French scientists have said it. I don't know how they calculated. Without oceans and sees I presume.

Western (=European) part of Russia is the real reason for this result. It's hard to understand how big Russia really is: 10000 km from west to east. About the same distance as from London to Los Angeles.

smh · Post by **smh** » Sat Jun 22, 2002 1:33 am

ag_pt wrote:....people are used to see the nordic countries reduced in size - and that is an effect of the more common map projections.

Thats not true. The opposite is the case. The further you go north (or south) the larger a country looks on a flat map.

Closer to the north pole it's less far to walk around the earth compared to the equator but on a map it's the same distance.

Also, the shortest way between two points on earth is NOT a straight line on a flat map.

smh · Post by **smh** » Sat Jun 22, 2002 1:38 am

Oh, just found this

It shows a more realistic center of europe

airis · Post by **airis** » Sat Jun 22, 2002 9:37 am

smh wrote: The further you go north (or south) the larger a country looks on a flat map.

Yes, Greenland looks on a flat map as big as South America. In reality it's much smaller. But on TV weather maps it is often the case that south is bigger than north.

Hmm.. Maybe we should have an EU directive about this.

It seems that all countries and every people want to be near center of Europe. Actually it is just in peoples minds.

Saaropean · Post by **Saaropean** » Sat Jun 22, 2002 1:57 pm

ag_pt wrote:The geodesic center of the european union before 1995 (i.e., not counting with Austria, Sweden and Finland) was located in a small french village in the Lorraine area, near the border with Germany.

COOL! Where exactly was that? I live in Germany, close to the border with Lorraine.

micro · Post by **micro** » Sat Jun 22, 2002 1:59 pm

smh wrote:
ag_pt wrote:....people are used to see the nordic countries reduced in size - and that is an effect of the more common map projections.
Thats not true. The opposite is the case. The further you go north (or south) the larger a country looks on a flat map.

Closer to the north pole it's less far to walk around the earth compared to the equator but on a map it's the same distance.

Also, the shortest way between two points on earth is NOT a straight line on a flat map.

About the many different projections the maps on market have I found this Java applet: http://www.btinternet.com/~se16/js/mapproj.htm.

airis · Post by **airis** » Sat Jun 22, 2002 4:08 pm

Nice those random maps.

I have allways liked maps. Hope we get maps on this site too.

Maybe I should have said that I saw that comparison (London/Los Angeles) in my map book.
I believe that it is the shortest distance in a round earth.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 24, 2002 12:19 am

airis wrote:
Mr Euro wrote: Do you really believe Lithuania is the Middle of Europe?
I think French scientists have said it. I don't know how they calculated. Without oceans and sees I presume.

Western (=European) part of Russia is the real reason for this result. It's hard to understand how big Russia really is: 10000 km from west to east. About the same distance as from London to Los Angeles.

Yes, people keep forgetting that in speaking geographical terms, Europe reaches as far as to the Ural mountains in the east, and so quite a large part of Russia is in Europe.

This little map shows Europe (Let's forget about the projections for a while and not use this picture for estimating where the centre is, because here France and Spain are clearly too small and Finland too big. I,m just showing what Europe consists of

)

EuroBillTracker

Center

Center

Re: Center