{"id":900,"date":"2009-02-09T18:24:47","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T23:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=900"},"modified":"2022-03-21T06:36:39","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T11:36:39","slug":"glasgow-or-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/glasgow-or-madrid\/","title":{"rendered":"Glasgow or Madrid?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Think quickly: Which city is further west, Glasgow, Scotland or Madrid, Spain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re a cynic like me you&#8217;d guess Madrid. Of course, you&#8217;d figure it was a trick question whether you &#8220;knew&#8221; the answer or not. You&#8217;d also be wrong. Glasgow is indeed further west than Madrid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if I substituted Edinburgh, Scotland for Glasgow, then you&#8217;d be correct. Indeed, Madrid is further west than Edinburgh. In fact, some portions of Spain are further west than the entirety of Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/d\/embed?mid=1ymm36_wdkqeXF8M080R2IpMUcrw&amp;hl=en\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Counterintuitiveness<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I love questions that toy with conventional wisdom. Sometimes we&#8217;re conditioned to think of direction &#8211; in this case &#8220;west&#8221; &#8211; in a nonlinear manner. The British Islands and the Republic of Ireland lay off the western coast of continental Europe. They observe a time zone that starts an hour earlier than their nearby neighbors, Spain, France and the Low Countries. This tricks the mind into thinking it that has to be further west than the rest of Europe. Nonetheless, place it on a map and the illusion disappears immediately. This happens much like the <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=15\">Reno\/Los Angeles <\/a>situation I featured some time ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/franes\/5657554145\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5269\/5657554145_6f965a23a9_b.jpg\" alt=\"cabo da roca. Photo by fran eirin; (CC BY-NC 2.0)\"\/><\/a><figcaption>Cabo da Roca, Portugal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Continental Europe extends appreciably westward as it forms the Iberian Peninsula and separates the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. The latitude of the westernmost point in continental Europe, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cabo_da_Roca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Cabo da Roca<\/a> in Portugal, is further west than all of Great Britain and nearly the entirety of the Republic of Ireland to boot. Galway, Limerick and Cork are all to the east. Dublin is even further away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">My Current State of Mind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Intellectually I knew this peculiarity existed but I never thought of it much until recently. Recently I&#8217;ve been geo-coding mounds of coordinates on both sides of the Prime Meridian. I&#8217;ve been been designing a project in the background for the last couple of months. I&#8217;ll reveal it soon enough. More to the point, the software I&#8217;m using represents longitude as a negative number west of the Prime Meridian and a positive number to the east. So I&#8217;ve been barraged with constant reminders of where the coordinates fall. That led me to dig a tiny bit deeper and resulted in the curious little exercise I decided to feature today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Think quickly: Which city is further west, Glasgow, Scotland or Madrid, Spain? If you&#8217;re a cynic like me you&#8217;d guess Madrid. Of course, you&#8217;d figure it was a trick question whether you &#8220;knew&#8221; the answer or not. You&#8217;d also be wrong. Glasgow is indeed further west than Madrid. However, if I substituted Edinburgh, Scotland for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,59,78,88,32,2121],"tags":[7469,1266,1264,1265,89,1267,84,895],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cities","category-distance","category-international","category-island","category-longitude","category-united-kingdom","tag-cabo-da-roca","tag-edinburgh","tag-glasgow","tag-madrid","tag-portugal","tag-prime-meridian","tag-scotland","tag-spain"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Glasgow or Madrid? - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Think quickly: Which city is further west, Glasgow, Scotland or Madrid, Spain? 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Beware of tricks of the mind.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/glasgow-or-madrid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-09T23:24:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-21T11:36:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5269\/5657554145_6f965a23a9_b.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheReal12MC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheReal12MC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Twelve Mile Circle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\"},\"headline\":\"Glasgow or Madrid?\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-09T23:24:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-21T11:36:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":384,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live.staticflickr.com\\\/5269\\\/5657554145_6f965a23a9_b.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Cabo da Roca\",\"Edinburgh\",\"Glasgow\",\"Madrid\",\"Portugal\",\"Prime Meridian\",\"Scotland\",\"Spain\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Cities\\\/Towns\",\"Distance\",\"International\",\"Island\",\"Longitude\",\"United Kingdom\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/\",\"name\":\"Glasgow or Madrid? - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/glasgow-or-madrid\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/live.staticflickr.com\\\/5269\\\/5657554145_6f965a23a9_b.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-09T23:24:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-21T11:36:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Think quickly: Which city is further west, Glasgow, Scotland or Madrid, Spain? 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