a newbie question: how to get latitude and longitude of city London
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I don't know for London specifically, but for most medium/smaller towns, in Norway and other European countries, there was one dominating church, and the church tower was used to locate the town. At least in Norway, if the church was located by itself, outside the village on a hilltop to be seen, the coordinates of the railroad station, usually right in the village center, was used as the coordinates of the village. I lived for a year in a Midwestern village with a population of 738, but it had four churches. You couldn't pick one of those! I believe that common practice on the prairie was to use the City Hall as a reference. For London: You should certainly be aware (you probably are!) that 'The City of London' is only a small part of 'greater London'. Most of what we think of as 'the London area' is, formally speaking, a crowd of other cities that has merged with each other and The City of London. My guess is that the tower of St. Paul's Cathedral is the one defining the location of London. It is essential to Londoners, and it is right in the middle of the 'Greater London' area.
thanks for the great info!:rose:
diligent hands rule....
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"The centre of London is often given as the Charles I statue south of Trafalgar Square." Edit: Here in Phoenix, the (0,0) point is the intersection of Central and Washington.
:rose::rose::rose:
diligent hands rule....
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....
I believe the city centre is the 'headquarters' of the city. This is also where distances (between cities) are reckoned from.
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I don't know for London specifically, but for most medium/smaller towns, in Norway and other European countries, there was one dominating church, and the church tower was used to locate the town. At least in Norway, if the church was located by itself, outside the village on a hilltop to be seen, the coordinates of the railroad station, usually right in the village center, was used as the coordinates of the village. I lived for a year in a Midwestern village with a population of 738, but it had four churches. You couldn't pick one of those! I believe that common practice on the prairie was to use the City Hall as a reference. For London: You should certainly be aware (you probably are!) that 'The City of London' is only a small part of 'greater London'. Most of what we think of as 'the London area' is, formally speaking, a crowd of other cities that has merged with each other and The City of London. My guess is that the tower of St. Paul's Cathedral is the one defining the location of London. It is essential to Londoners, and it is right in the middle of the 'Greater London' area.
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Use an extra large spot.. Sometimes it is also called a polygon...
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....
Are you asking how it could be done or how it is done? It could be defined as the coordinates of the center of gravity of the polygon(s) representing the city boundaries. It is however done in the manner similar to the one described by trønderen, i.e picking an arbitrary place of a certain dubious relevance. You can see interesting examples running Google Earth and searching for different cities. It shows both the city limits polygon and the point picked up as center. In particular, for London, the center is the statue just south of Trafalgar Square, while for Paris and New York it is the city hall. For Madrid it is the "Puerta del Sol" plaza, that happens to be the origin for road distances in Spain. An interesting case is also the city where I live, Montreal: due to many mergers and de-mergers of various municipalities, the city boundary has absolutely nothing in common with a polygon. Conclusion: it's a mess :)
Mircea
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....
Traditionally, the answer is the location of the post office
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Traditionally, the answer is the location of the post office
Some places that could be the defining point. Larger cities may have several post offices, making it ambiguous. Smaller places may not have a post office (here in Norway we are making great efforts to completely kill the postal service!). There are several other options: I have mentioned the church tower, the railroad station and the city hall. In Norway, lots of towns are located on rivers, with a town bridge connecting the east and west, or maybe north and south part of the town. The midpoint of the bridge is considered the midpoint of the town/village. So: There are so many alternatives for identifying the center of a city / town / village that you cannot state one as The Rule.
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Some places that could be the defining point. Larger cities may have several post offices, making it ambiguous. Smaller places may not have a post office (here in Norway we are making great efforts to completely kill the postal service!). There are several other options: I have mentioned the church tower, the railroad station and the city hall. In Norway, lots of towns are located on rivers, with a town bridge connecting the east and west, or maybe north and south part of the town. The midpoint of the bridge is considered the midpoint of the town/village. So: There are so many alternatives for identifying the center of a city / town / village that you cannot state one as The Rule.
Yeah if you have more than one, the GPO is probably in that town. That was historically true, post offices are disappearing here as well. Norway is ace, BTW. Saw Rammstein and went to a burger restaurant run by the guys from In Flames
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Traditionally, the answer is the location of the post office
In most Aussie cities it's the GPO, also used as zero point for road distances. Not long after I moved to Sydney ('burbs) half a century ago, I happened across the Obelisk of Distances[^] Apparently when it was erected it was roughly the centroid of the then settlelement.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Yeah if you have more than one, the GPO is probably in that town. That was historically true, post offices are disappearing here as well. Norway is ace, BTW. Saw Rammstein and went to a burger restaurant run by the guys from In Flames
Christian Graus wrote:
went to a burger restaurant run by the guys from In Flames
2112 is next to my office in Gothenburg, which incidentally does not lie in Norway. ;P
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
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I don't know for London specifically, but for most medium/smaller towns, in Norway and other European countries, there was one dominating church, and the church tower was used to locate the town. At least in Norway, if the church was located by itself, outside the village on a hilltop to be seen, the coordinates of the railroad station, usually right in the village center, was used as the coordinates of the village. I lived for a year in a Midwestern village with a population of 738, but it had four churches. You couldn't pick one of those! I believe that common practice on the prairie was to use the City Hall as a reference. For London: You should certainly be aware (you probably are!) that 'The City of London' is only a small part of 'greater London'. Most of what we think of as 'the London area' is, formally speaking, a crowd of other cities that has merged with each other and The City of London. My guess is that the tower of St. Paul's Cathedral is the one defining the location of London. It is essential to Londoners, and it is right in the middle of the 'Greater London' area.
Historically, Charing Cross was the "centre" of London, to where all distances from other destinations were measured.
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....
I believe it is the location of the largest Post Office that has been used traditionally.
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....
that IS an interesting question. :thumbsup:
CI/CD = Continuous Impediment/Continuous Despair
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....
Wikipedia lists the city centre for most cities. You can click on the link and see precisely where it is, on your fav map/satellite website. As for London it is neither the GPO nor St Paul's cathedral, it is in the middle of the street, just off Trafalgar Sq, as mentioned by many. In Stockholm, it is not a building either, it is off centre in the square facing the Opera. By what administrative method these were picked? Good question. EDIT: It may also be noted that the GPS coordinates on Wikipedia, do not include the "last" decimal. By last I mean the last explicit decimal in the ensuing URL, on Googmaps. One can change this "last" decimal and see pin move a few metres. This rounding might explain why the pins are displayed near, but still off, significant landmarks.
"If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going"
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Are you asking how it could be done or how it is done? It could be defined as the coordinates of the center of gravity of the polygon(s) representing the city boundaries. It is however done in the manner similar to the one described by trønderen, i.e picking an arbitrary place of a certain dubious relevance. You can see interesting examples running Google Earth and searching for different cities. It shows both the city limits polygon and the point picked up as center. In particular, for London, the center is the statue just south of Trafalgar Square, while for Paris and New York it is the city hall. For Madrid it is the "Puerta del Sol" plaza, that happens to be the origin for road distances in Spain. An interesting case is also the city where I live, Montreal: due to many mergers and de-mergers of various municipalities, the city boundary has absolutely nothing in common with a polygon. Conclusion: it's a mess :)
Mircea
great info for the algorithm:rose:
diligent hands rule....
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recently I am studying on book like this: Raphael's. I wonder how to decide a city's latitude and longitude because a city is a large area, not a spot.
diligent hands rule....