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Friday, December 14, 2012

Geography question

Someone asked me the other day, "How many states lie at least partially north of the southernmost point of Canada?"

I thought of Ontario dipping down the way it does, counted the border states, and replied, "Ten." (I forgot the panhandle of Idaho.)

What's your answer?

(Scroll down for the correct answer.)

















The correct answer is 27. The US-Canadian border goes through the middle of Lake Erie, and there is a tiny island called Middle Island which lies just north of that border. There are 27 states, including California, which include area at a higher latitude than Middle Island.

(You can probably stump others with this just as you and I were stumped.)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That would be an ideal spot for them to station their nuclear deterrent ICBMs.
G

John Craig said...

G --
I've never understood why we don't just invade Canada and annex it.

Anonymous said...

Maybe because they have socialized health care?
G

John Craig said...

G --
No difference there, now.

Anonymous said...

The link to the map showing the line is below.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rongross.com/gis/us_n_of_canada_s_map.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.rongross.com/gis/usnoca.htm&h=510&w=758&sz=24&tbnid=8xlueNnJafMsWM:&tbnh=82&tbnw=122&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dstates%2Bnorth%2Bof%2Bcanada%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=states+north+of+canada&usg=__FZhoWQoq-VM0SY8uJVMgJzLugKU=&docid=TPShtSg1diKyVM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=c0_OULiBMon30gHBtICYAQ&sqi=2&ved=0CEgQ9QEwBA&dur=2343

John Craig said...

Anonymous --
Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting, John. Interesting. I was born and raised in Canada and didn't realize there were so many points south of the US border. I thought Windsor, Ontario was the only one. Donna

John Craig said...

Thank you Donna. there are very few people who'd realize how many states have area north of Middle island.