{"id":10188,"date":"2012-02-07T18:36:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T23:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=10188"},"modified":"2022-04-25T06:47:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T11:47:12","slug":"all-lined-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/all-lined-up\/","title":{"rendered":"All Lined Up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sometimes I feel like researching a topic and presenting it in exacting detail with supporting maps and illustrations. Other times I simply gaze at a map and draw a few lines. Today it\u2019s about the lines. There\u2019s nothing intellectual here, it\u2019s more of a game. What is the maximum number of states I can cross if I draw a straight line? The best I could do was sixteen states plus the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=1Bf18_XQQJIyJAN3fa7gILAUr6gE\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can already anticipate what some readers might be thinking. Are these supposedly &#8220;straight&#8221; lines truly accurate given the curvature of the earth? I\u2019ve found before that the Google Maps site actually does a pretty good job of drawing Great Circles as straight lines. However I also imagine there\u2019s a margin of error. It might cause a line to miss some of the boundaries implied by Google, especially the ones that nip a small corner. Let\u2019s understand that this is a possibility but set it aside for purposes of the game. We&#8217;re in it for the fun, not necessarily the accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">My Results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sheishine\/29897772022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5152\/29897772022_13c5c10d86_o.jpg\" alt=\"Slope Line. Photo by hine; (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Various flavors of west to east seemed to be the best opportunity. North to south isn&#8217;t nearly as attractive except along the eastern coast. My drafting method involved brute force. I didn\u2019t use any kind of scientific algorithm. Essentially I drew lines across the continent in several places. Then I adjusted them back-and-forth in an attempt to barely clip as many states as possible. I even used Hawaii and Alaska because they\u2019re usually left out of these things and I wanted those readers to feel included. That demonstrates the minimalist approach to the reasoning behind my method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I noticed that sometimes the lines seemed to cross a state at one zoom level. However the results might change when examined at a different zoom level. I guess Google had a tough time rendering them exactly. For purposes of the game, assume that if a line crosses a state boundary at the deeper zoom levels then it &#8220;counts&#8221; here. So that\u2019s another reason I consider this more of a game than a definitive answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had no problem hitting thirteen states. I did that twice rather easily, moving from northwest to southeast (orange and red lines). States were larger in that direction so there were fewer to hit. Drafting the line southwest to northeast produced better results. Also I hit sixteen states twice. Thank goodness for all those small, highly concentrated states in the Mid-Atlantic and New England. That also helped me out with a great example completely in the east where I managed to rival the much-longer continental lines, recording a string of fifteen states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Challenge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Can anyone find something better than my blue line, sixteen plus DC? : CA-NV-AZ-UT-CO-KS-MO-IL-IN-KY-OH-WV-VA-DC-MD-DE-NJ. I\u2019ll see if I can replicate any better solutions if you can describe it to me. Better yet, use the My Maps function in Google Maps and post the link in the comments. I\u2019ll make sure any resulting embedded map display properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve intentionally not created maps for other parts of the world in case you would like to take a stab at finding answers for things such as d\u00e9partements of France, counties of England, individual continents or the entire planet. Go ahead and post your result. Let\u2019s see if anyone can beat it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes I feel like researching a topic and presenting it in exacting detail with supporting maps and illustrations. Other times I simply gaze at a map and draw a few lines. Today it\u2019s about the lines. There\u2019s nothing intellectual here, it\u2019s more of a game. What is the maximum number of states I can cross [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,59,4],"tags":[2921,425,7522,3305],"class_list":["post-10188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-borders","category-distance","category-misc","tag-contest","tag-google-maps","tag-lines","tag-puzzle"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>All Lined Up - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle set out to find the most state borders that could be crossed with a single contiguous line.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/all-lined-up\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"All Lined Up - 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