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Nobody_Speshal t1_j3dpg75 wrote

Reply to comment by GregorianShant in TIL Colorado is actually a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon, meaning it has 697 sides. by Dearfield

It looks like that from high up but I’m guessing it means that it actually isn’t as straight as we think due to imprecise methods used when originally making the border

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GregorianShant t1_j3dyj09 wrote

By that logic, basically every object in the world is a Hexadecainfintesimaloctogon, because if you zoom in far enough, you will find infinitesimal edges.

But pedantry aside, it has 4 fucking edges.

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starmartyr t1_j3f3bej wrote

That isn't what is happening here. Colorado's border was defined by congress as 37°N to 41°N latitude, and from 25°W to 32°W longitude. That is effectively a trapezoid or at least as close to one that can be drawn on a globe. That shape does have 4 edges as you say. However, when they went to survey the land errors were made. 19th-century surveyors would stray from the legal border by as much as half a mile in some places and would correct it by making a couple of near 90-degree turns to correct this. Congress then accepted the survey boundaries as the legal boundaries making it have more than 4 edges.

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MrDowntown t1_j3fdl0w wrote

> 25°W to 32°W longitude

from the Washington Meridian. An important note.

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