Which state do you use as a square?

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annaoze94@reddit

I don't understand this whatsoever What are you talking about?? There are two very rectangular states and that's it like what are you talking about?? What??

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

Say you see a Texas shaped sink

You want to describe your sink as a state and comment it

Which state do you compare it to?

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MattinglyDineen@reddit

Why the fuck would you want a sink shaped like a state?

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dimsum2121@reddit

Ah, so you've not had the pleasure of eating a Texas shaped steak in Texas.

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

It's Texas, everything is shaped like Texas

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Zorkeldschorken@reddit

The shape is called a "texagon".

/r/texagon

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This would never even occur to me as someone from New England. If you showed me something rectangular and asked me which state it was, I might be able to come up Colorado but I don’t typically have the shapes of all 50 states readily available in my mind.

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AKDude79@reddit

Out of curiosity, how many sides does Colorado have?

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

697

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AKDude79@reddit

Are you counting the fact that lines of latitude do not conform to a perfect line due to the curvature of the earth?

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

It accounts for curvature but doesn't really matter much

They put 697 markers down after deciding the ideal border, and those 697 markers aren't perfectly aligned

Same issue goes for Wyoming but I only mentioned Colorado in the post because that's the only error people care about between the two for whatever reason

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nasa258e@reddit

What kind of weird ass question is this?

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

Curiosity of a question nobody's asked before

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The_Ninja_Manatee@reddit

No one does this.

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

It was more of a hypothetical than assuming people normally do it

The situation's too specific and useless to be normal

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ProfessionalAir445@reddit

If I see something that’s shaped like a square or rectangle then I’m going to say it’s shaped like a square or rectangle.

People would only say “hey that thing is shaped kind of like Ohio” because Ohio isn’t an established shape that can be used as a description.

There’s no reason to say that something is shaped like Colorado in order to describe it as a rectangle.

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jeffbell@reddit

Technically Colorado is not actually a square. The top and bottom edges follow the latitude lines which are slightly curved and the sides pointed towards the North Pole so they are closer together at the top.

At least that was the plan.

When the surveyors got there and marked the border there were slight differences and so in reality it has 697 sides.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/is-colorado-a-rectangle

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rawbface@reddit

It was square until the fall of Numenor, got it

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TrillyMike@reddit

Yeah the earths round, we know

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GOTaSMALL1@reddit

Allegedly.

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TrillyMike@reddit

Oh boy

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MrLongWalk@reddit

most of us do, anyway

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TrillyMike@reddit

Fair play

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Sowf_Paw@reddit

Is a city in Colorado! Though the city name is one word, not two.

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TrillyMike@reddit

lol sounds like a lovely place

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wormbreath@reddit

Big if true.

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kgxv@reddit

697 is so oddly specific and I’m here for it

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rawbface@reddit

Those states are rectangles. We don't have a square state.

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FarmerExternal@reddit

Colorado doesn’t have 4 sides??

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

Surveyors messed up, look at NM,CO,OK border

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FarmerExternal@reddit

I looked on Apple Maps but it looks like CO is a square and NM has the little nub where OK doesn’t come all the way across TX?

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

The CO-OK border angles downward slightly near the NM border

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

Even just by curvature of the earth both Colorado and Wyoming are trapezoids because they are defined by latitude and longitude and lines of longitude converge on the poles so they are closer together as you get toward either pole.

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Ananvil@reddit

Wyoming isn't real, so you can't use it

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Nawoitsol@reddit

And Colorado isn’t square.

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Popular-Positive-331@reddit

it is a perfect 280 by 380mi rectangle

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CupBeEmpty@reddit

Be careful throwing around “perfect” because surveying errors and the curvature of the earth do funny things.

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Dmbender@reddit

For me everything West of the Mississippi is a square : ^ )

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Lostsock1995@reddit

I mean I live here so I’m probably biased but I do think Colorado is very square like. It’s how I describe it on the map, as “the one that’s most like a square”. It’s not perfectly a square though

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

Idea came up under a post featuring a Texas shaped sink, with commenter's joking they have either a Wyoming or Colorado shaped one in their house

Curious which one is the majority

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G00dSh0tJans0n@reddit

Have you ever a Colorado shape sink that means your sink has some dents and dings in it. Zoom in on the Colorado border just to the right of where it meets Oklahoma and New Mexico.

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larch303@reddit

Well, that’s not the only problem, most home sinks also curve in at the corners instead of having sharp corners like state boundaries

But it’s close enough for humor

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Majestic-Macaron6019@reddit

I could never draw straight lines, either

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

I knew it wasn't perfect but wow that's bad

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larch303@reddit

I’d decide on the spot

But I have never faced this situation

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wormbreath@reddit

I always use my own. It’s hip to be square.

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CRO553R@reddit

Huey Lewis has entered the chat

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notyogrannysgrandkid@reddit

Their early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when Sports came out in ‘83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

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theoriginalcafl@reddit

Most people probably don't listen to the lyrics, but they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends. It's also a personal statement about the band itself.

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DoubleDongle-F@reddit

I don't find myself discussing square states often enough for this to come up.

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mostie2016@reddit

Oklahoma

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

I'd say it's an OK choice

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AtheneSchmidt@reddit

I've always used CO, but I am also from CO. It never even occurred to me that Wyoming is actually more square than we are. We're more rectangular.

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

Surprisingly the first Colorado response I've gotten

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AtheneSchmidt@reddit

There are several as responses to replies. You don't get a notification of those as the OP, but can see them if you hit "see all replies" on a reply.

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

Fair, I forgot to check replies

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Divergent916@reddit

TIL the state I live in is, in fact, not perfectly rectangular

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Soundwave-1976@reddit

Edit: I do realize Colorado isn't 4 sided, but looking from afar it looks quite close to being perfectly flat

Come again? One side is NM, one side is Utah, one side is Kansas, and the last is Wyoming. That's 4 sides?

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mprhusker@reddit

How dare you forget Nebraska

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Soundwave-1976@reddit

Lol! I was staying with the largest part of each side,

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Life-Ad1409@reddit (OP)

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/s/ko4qVzRK0Q

It was meant to be square, but the surveyors aren't perfect

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Chad-Ironrod@reddit

Wyoming is more square.

Both states are the same "shape" of 4 deg latitude tall by 7 deg longitude wide. This makes Wyoming smaller/narrower/squarer because longitude lines are closer together further north.

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