Talk:Geographic centers of the United States

message: I don't know how these locations were determined, but it seems very logical to me that the geographic center of Hawaii should be somewhere on land in Hawaii County, since it alone comprises more than five-eighths (5/8) of the entire state's land. Backspace (talk) 02:46, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Hawaii

message: The text of the table should use the same directional terms.  For example, ENE or southsouthwest, instead of a mix of each. — MrDolomite • Talk 05:31, 16 July 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Table directions

message: The coördinates listed for the geographic center of Florida are about 60 miles southeast of the location given by the USGS as "12 miles north-northwest of Brooksville".
Inspection of a map reveals that the coördinates are clearly too far east and south to represent the geographic center of Florida. (Point "A" indicates Brooksville; point "B" indicates the coördinates.)
Michael S. Saunders (talk) 22:21, 21 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Coordinate error 

message: The article claims that "the geographical center of the entire U.S. is northeast of Belle Fourche in Butte County, South Dakota ".  Apparently someone decided Alaska is part of "entire" but Hawaii isn't or something.  I thought about changing the wording to "continental" but that would just be speculative assumption: without a reference even given yet, I'm don't want to guess at what area was really included or excluded, or, more to the point, whether a claim dubiously marked as "entire" is even calculated correctly. --Closeapple (talk) 04:42, 25 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: The problem was that the article did not provide a reference for the designation of the geographical of the U.S., as determined after the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the union in 1959. The reference from NOAA's website explains the method by which the adjustment was made. The geographic center of the 48 contiguous states was designated as "approximately at latitude 39°50'N, longitude 98°35'W, near Lebanon, Kansas." The admission of Alaska moved this center to "approximately latitude 44°59'N, longitude 103°38'W, about eleven miles west of Castle Rock, Butte County, South Dakota." After Hawaii was admitted, the geographic center "shifted about six miles west-southwest to latitude 44°58'N, longitude 103°46'W, which is approximately 17 miles west of Castle Rock, Butte County, South Dakota." The reference explains that "the effect of including Hawaii is rather small since its area is only about 1/560 of that of the forty-nine states." NameIsRon (talk) 16:40, 8 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Entire U.S. 

message: How exactly is a "geographic center" calculated?  Is it simply the "central" coordinates of a bounding box (bounding quadrangle) containing the region in question?  Or is it more like a center of mass, and if so, is that calculated in 3D cartesian coordinates or 2D lat/lon?  Personally, I think the "best" method would be the 3D center of mass, but this article just doesn't say which method was used and I think that's a significant oversight. 99.177.172.109 (talk) 06:03, 21 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Method? 

message: The reference to a point near Trenton may be good, but the Latitude / Longitude shown to the right are for a different point much too far east.
69.125.206.185 (talk) 07:20, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Jersey