I walked the length of a state (ish)

Join me on the medium seas, 7-10 November: stemconatsea.c...
Boundary Stones of the District of Columbia boundarystones...
Rectangular States and Kinky Borders mathtourist.bl...
"Chart showing the original boundary milestones of the District of Columbia." Fred E. Woodward, 1906. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress. blogs.loc.gov/...
Huge thanks to my Patreon supporters. They be there and be square. / standupmaths
CORRECTIONS
None yet, let me know if you spot anything!
Filming by Truman Hanks
Editing by Gus Melton
Written and performed by Matt Parker
Additional material by Truman Hanks and Nicole Jacobus
Produced by Nicole Jacobus
Music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson
Additional technical support by Adam Fineberg and David Benji Weiner
MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician
Website: standupmaths.com/
PS The Smithsonian video is about a calculator prototype they have in their archives. It's very exciting.

[@marpheus1]

The Parker DC

[@fritz46]

I knew something like this would be among the first 10 comments!

[@jared3174]

This will annoy Matt but I think he'll appreciate that the US tried hard and got really close to their magic square district.

[@bogdan_ostaficiuc]

parker colorado

[@TrimutiusToo]

Yeah I am still waiting for AC version so that i can just plug it in into socket on my wall without that AC to DC converter block thing

[@montystar]

Parker state. Not a state, but it could be. Is a square... well... was a square for a while, but it is not a square now. But it could be.

[@lettuce141]

19:26 "D.C. was a perfect square for 46 years." If only they'd waited three more.

[@jeffbybee5207]

Why is 49 years significant

[@cognisent_]

​@@jeffbybee5207Because 7 × 7 = 49

[@Blockenheimer]

​@@jeffbybee5207it's a perfect square

[@woowooNeedsFaith]

They waited 1 year too long.

[@Paul71H]

@@jeffbybee5207 49 is a perfect square (7 x 7 = 49).

[@tortoiseplaysvr9811]

missed opportunity for a squarespace sponsorship 😏

[@RQLexi]

Fitting for a missed opportunity for a square state 😛

[@huawafabe]

It's a Parker square. Not quite a square

[@AmIAntiAntianti]

No itnt. Couldve been, but the state of virginia didnt think ahead

[@reecec626]

Oh god, please, no more.

[@jpdemer5]

@ "Now that you've developed that formerly useless swampland, we want it back."

[@pembrokeshiredan]

01:00 Why do the spikes on that fence face inwards? Does stone have a history of escape attempts?

[@marklonergan3898]

I think stone's admirers have a history of lawsuit attempts. 😀

[@user-oh9zn3fn9m]

well if they faced directly upwards or even outwards, it would be an injury risk, this way it's a lot harder to injure yourself while walking around it

[@Sharxee]

Look like people traps to me.. easy to get in but tough to get out of one. Now that I think of it.. wonder how many dudes been rescued out of those.

[@LeoMRogers]

I guess you don't need to stop people getting in as long as you can stop them getting out again.

[@palpatinewasright]

Mathematicians check in, they don't check out

[@kaloncpu57]

As a Coloradan, I've never been so thoroughly roasted.

[@KatieTheDev]

Our state was actually going to be square at some point

[@whophd]

@@KatieTheDev I wonder if it’s really possible to define something by latitudes instead of milestones

[@martinmckee5333]

To be honest, I find the true shape much more interesting than just a rectangle. Besides, I'm square enough for the whole state all on my own.

[@michaelbauers8800]

Surely you appreciated coloradogon, I know I did, and been here for decades.

[@Thanatos2996]

@@whophdit is, but markers make the surveying to actually use the borders much more practical.

[@manafestation]

Realtor: "And this lovely 3 bedroom colonial house comes with your own personal cornerstone of American heritage. Enjoy paying the taxes of two different 'states'... and the random KZbinrs in your yard"

[@tncorgi92]

I would love having something like that on my property.

[@OneBiOzZ]

As a Maryland resident i can say that we held up our end at keeping DC square.

[@ncot_tech]

You ford the river. You lose 1 oxen, 3 wagon wheels and 10 bags of grain. Matt has a fever.

[@NotKyleChicago]

Terry gets upset since someone disses him.

[@adampogatshnik6833]

As Matt walks around DC you could say he’s taking a square route.

[@mauritsbol4806]

Just like DC did in 1847

[@LightslicerGP]

@@adampogatshnik6833 peak math joke

[@lev3k]

You could say an imaginary one.

[@orterves]

​@@lev3k don't be so negative

[@johnladuke6475]

You cut that out before the children start to imitate you.

[@Rubrickety]

Matt Parker: The anti-GeoWizard. "It's in somebody's backyard! We can't go in there!"

[@heighRick]

^ this

[@rhsmn2334]

tbf GeoWizard probably wouldn't have done that in America

[@JonnyRobbie]

@@rhsmn2334 They did do a little bit of trespassing during their us adventure a while back.

[@LetsGoGetThem]

This is not Wales, it's America. People have guns here.

[@GoErikTheRed]

@@LetsGoGetThemyou clearly don’t know about British farmers. Hunting is still incredibly popular, and the majority of guns aren’t registered

[@kempshott]

Maths man, maths man, maths maths maths man man.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

...man.

[@vincentlevarrick6557]

Wasn't expecting to see this in the comments but I'm inordinately pleased to come across it 😂😂

[@jw-son]

Shoutout to Colorado, gotta be one of my favorite n-gons where n is somewhere in [4, 944].

[@williampepper4789]

If I told you it was a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon, would that narrow it down for you?

[@justawatchin2]

​@@williampepper4789that's greek for 4 right

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Being the favorite is quite impressive, given that most n-gons fit that bill.

[@IsomorphicToIntingersAdjoin_i]

" How past Matt is doing on the ground , Ooooh he had been arrested "

[@SkippiiKai]

17:18 Only 100 square meters? That seems *really* small for a capital city!

[@Uriel-p9w]

They mainly did this so that the capital sole function would be for the workings of the federal government rather than it being a major city for domicile and commerce. If you look at what DC was before it becoming a capital the land was literally a swamp lol.

[@JdeBP]

Do not rule out too early the hypothesis that the U.S.A. has a different sized metre to the rest of the world, idiosyncratically defined perhaps as a tenth of a D.C..Or maybe 1729 fluid ounces. (-:

[@wbfaulk]

It's even more impressive that they told him that he could have 100 square meters a year before the meter was originally defined. (It was actually "ten miles square", or 100 square miles.)

[@youngwt1]

City of London fits in a square mile

[@QuantumHistorian]

@@youngwt1 Not the capital though, which is the Westminster part of London. The City of London itself was staunchly independent from royal (and later parliamentary) power.

[@jeffeberl12]

As a Coloradoan, I have always been jealous of states that can have interesting cutting boards made in their likeness. But with Matt's 100x scaling trick, I can finally have an interesting cutting board of my favorite state!

[@falsemcnuggethope]

You can make the board three-dimensional

[@jeffeberl12]

​That would be fun. But it doesn't make a terribly effective cutting board if it isn't flat.

[@falsemcnuggethope]

@@jeffeberl12 you win some, you lose some...

[@tncorgi92]

I live in Tennessee, it's rumored that our jagged northern border is alcohol-related. Can't prove it but it definitely seems possible.

[@Norsilca]

But at least you can buy any cutting board and have a 99% chance it's in the shape of your state!

[@ChaoticOccasus]

Can we get love for the camera man that just wants Potomac to be pronounced correctly?

[@FeltNokia]

I'm not a local, but I've only ever heard puh-toe-mick. Maybe it's the accent, but I've never heard puh-tom-ick

[@FeltNokia]

I'm doing more research after commenting and it looks like I was probably wrong! My bad!

[@jovetj]

It's also not MARY-land (or MERRY-lynd). It's more MARE-uh-lund.

[@tracyrreed]

Lester, Wooster, etc.

[@ferretyluv]

@@FeltNokiaNo, you were right. It’s puh-TOE-mick.

[@Uriel-p9w]

As someone who’s from DC and is piqued by its history here’s some more information: Before Congress declared Washington to become its capital it was initially Philadelphia until a local militia stormed an insurrection demanding back pay from the revolutionary war. Our capital moved around from Princeton, Annapolis, NYC, and back to Philly before Hamilton and Jefferson compromised that the nation’s capital should be in the middle of the north and south and independent so that no state had leverage over congress. This was also done so that the US treasury was also created to incur the debt of all states rather than 13 separate states debt. So they decided to plot our capital on a literal swamp (look at pictures of dc before it became our capital) from land between Maryland and Virginia. However one major area was particularly divisive amongst the northerns and southerners. Alexandria while under Virginia’s domain was the second largest slave port town outside of Richmond and many questions whether or not it should be justified to ratify slavery in our nation’s capital at the behest of the largest slave port in the area. Decades go by and when the issue was brought up again realizing the political tides have changed for that issue Virginia, Congress enacts a gag order halting the issue to further proceed. By 1846 the Virginia General Assembly finally passed a retrocession and Congress backed up the legislation. If you’re even remotely interested check out this link www.virginiaplaces.org/boundaries/retrocession.html#:~:text=The%20white%20political%20leaders%20in,significant%20number%20of%20local%20jobs.

[@billcook4768]

Sounds like there was some wheeling and dealing going on. Must have been fascinating. I wish I was in the room where it happened.

[@Tinil0]

It's a shame it got ruined by evil southerners =\

[@elliottmcollins]

Fantastic, thank you! Living in the Virginia half of the square, I've always been curious about the details.

[@blairhoughton7918]

Iirc it wasn't all swamp. Most of it is hilly and rocky. But the Mall and monument grounds are land reclaimed from an old swampy ditch. Been a minute, so I may be underestimating how far south the swamp went, I'll have to fill that in later.

[@coasteringkid]

As a person raised in Potomac, Maryland I appreciate your efforts Truman!

[@jh-ec7si]

It's pronounced Truman

[@NithinJune]

you were raised in the river?

[@ferretyluv]

@@NithinJuneThere’s a town called Potomac in Maryland. There’s also a Potomac Village in Virginia. Flint, MI is also a town and a city.

[@PrograError]

@@ferretyluv ah... the american doubles ... of course there's also the Fake London in the Canada side

[@blairhoughton7918]

Turns out I was, too. They told us it was Bethesda when we moved in, but a year ago I happened to look at our old house on Google maps and the line was on the other side by blocks. Now I don't know what to believe...

[@Nick-Lab]

That chunk off the QR code was peak comedy meeting peak design.

[@eduardog3000]

Not exactly the shape of DC. I'm guessing that's the most they could do while keeping it functional (thanks to the error correction in QR codes).

[@jpdemer5]

@@eduardog3000 Happily, it works as a diamond - even with a chunk of it swiped by Virginia.

[@alexmason234]

Funniest part of the video

[@3HenKiss]

This is why it should be STEAM-CON instead of STEM-CON...

[@DukeBG]

@@eduardog3000 yes, the QR code needs those markers (a black dot surrounded by a white outline surrounded by a black outline) intact to correct for perspective of the image.

[@iammaxhailme]

Always fun seeing something filmed so close to where you live, that you might actually be in the background somewhere!

[@cheeseparis1]

I was afraid to see an exact perfect square on this channel. Thanks Virginia!

[@boingoing1871]

Summary: Virginia did a take-backsie

[@appa609]

Fuckem. Take it back. Confederates don't get a say.

[@denelson83]

Rhett. Roe. Cess. Shin.

[@vlogerhood]

Truman is the real hero here.

[@taylor3950]

Thank you for your service, Truman

[@SunshineEquinox]

My thoughts on the intro: Smithsonian: we have a cool project Matt Parker: I need to find a square. 🤣

[@scottcartwright1718]

Thank you for this fun tour of the edge of our home state! (Speaking optimistically.) If you haven't already, look into fellow mathematician Benjamin Banneker, hired for his astronomical expertise in determining the founding marker at Jones Point. Wherever you land on the judgment of "only helped a little" vs. "helped a lot but was undercredited" on this one project, his life's work is pretty impressive.

[@ferretyluv]

I had heard the name before but the sign told me that he was a freed black astronomer who helped with the survey. I didn’t know that! Why don’t they teach that at school?

[@blairhoughton7918]

I wonder why it's there. The geometric center of the square is well north, in a courtyard at the Organization Of American States complex.

[@Kentrosauruses]

I was going to comment this if I didn’t see it! Benjamin Banneker was America’s first Black mathematician and frequently corresponded with Thomas Jefferson. (After talking to Banneker, TJ said he had to admit that Black people could be intelligent, so take that how you will)

[@DanFroughi]

I didn't realise spherical geometry was our old nemesis, however I am now convinced.

[@JdeBP]

M. Parker could have just been being hyperbolic. (-:

[@johnchessant3012]

the most interesting geometric state border I think is between Pennsylvania and Delaware. it's (mostly) a circular arc!

[@blairhoughton7918]

Seems to be centered on Wilmington. Someone wanted a particular buffer zone.

[@mpf1947]

@@blairhoughton7918 New Castle, actually. And most confusingly, the twelve-mile circle was originally specified for a transfer of land from Maryland to Pennsylvania in 1682, but it wasn't surveyed until 1763, by which it officially marked what part of Pennsylvania split off to become Delaware.

[@RKH1502]

17:22 "Up to 100 square meters" Made a real Parker Square out of that one, Matt

[@GoranNewsum]

Drinking game: take a shot every time Matt says "fencepost problem!"

[@rianfelis3156]

Double whenever he miscorrects because of it.

[@rightfront]

and then once the video is over you'll have a drinking problem!

[@JdeBP]

Surely you are taking shots _in between_ the times that Matt says "fencepost problems"? Apart from the last shot, of course. (-:

[@backwashjoe7864]

@@rightfront Now imagine taking a shot every time he called D.C. a state.

[@Sjoerd-gk3wr]

Bad drinking game he said it twice

[@JohnCumings]

I drove by you recording this with your crew at the North corner stone, at about 1:15. I was wondering what you guys were doing. Who knew it was the famous Matt Parker! I should've stopped.

[@tenmilez]

It’s the real world manifestation of the Parker Square.

[@cajunag]

I’m a math teacher in DC and if I ever ran into Matt Parker, it would absolutely make my year. Or decade. Or more.

[@dancoroian1]

It was less "throwing beverages into harbors" and more turning harbors _into_ beverages 😂

[@edgarallenhoe3518]

I kept thinking "didn't they already cover this?" (specifically the wonky borders out west) and then I realized I was thinking of map men 😅

[@blairhoughton7918]

...men men men.

[@R520]

17:20 I think you said "1719" and "100 square meters" instead of 1790 (on screen) and 100 sq Mi Thanks for the video as always, looking forward to the Smithsonian video

[@TBH_Inc]

Thanks for visiting the us and exploring our history/geography, I enjoyed the video!

[@Pinfeldorf]

Thank you for trying, Truman. Maybe if we could make pronunciation a maths problem Matt would be interested in doing it right.

[@hoebare]

but then he'd come up with some Parker Pronunciation instead

[@Tfin]

Like he does for pi? Outsource the pronunciation sometimes, and once a year try to get the best approximation of it using means other than the accepted ones? You're gonna end up in a boat on the PhotoMat.

[@johnladuke6475]

...Parker pronunciation?

[@ReverendTed]

Really not beating the Parker Square association with this type of content.

[@Psychlist1972]

As a Marylander, I appreciate the shade being thrown at Virginia in this ;) Edit: LOL a Truman at the end. I do a podcast with a guy from Australia and he always pronounces it "Merry-land"

[@unvergebeneid]

Not all dialects of English even distinguish marry, merry and Mary.

[@salty_slug]

6:11 "local independent chain" XD made sure to rotate that cup i see

[@ferretyluv]

Noooo, if I had known you were in town two weeks ago (I can tell by the snow), I would have gone to see you!

[@ryanhunter6029]

Ive lived 30 minutes from DC all my life and had no idea these stones were a thing! Guess i got a new thing to look for next time im down there!

[@mattp422]

"local, independent chain" 😂

[@Thelearninglouge]

Dunkin

[@mattp422]

@ I know. It was a joke

[@thom7440]

I lived in the DC area for 10 years and never knew about those stone markers. Had to import a guy from the UK to learn it. Thanks, Matt!!

[@dancoroian1]

Can't believe after referencing the fencepost problem all video long, you still managed to call the last marker the 10th rather than the 11th!

[@hoebare]

Is it really _that_ surprising?

[@Tfin]

Well, he was only going to all 9 of them (fencepost problem).

[@dancoroian1]

@Tfin then he wouldn't have ended up at the westernmost corner, as he also claimed...

[@mister-8658]

It was a perfect square as far as the methods available at the time of surveying that land in 1792. Also the Potomac has shifted slightly since its original surveying.

[@stargazer7644]

The potomac shifting has nothing to do with the placement of the boundary stones. And the surveying methods available then are pretty much the same methods used right up until GPS became operational.

[@hebl47]

And I'd also like to add that it's pronounced Potomac.

[@19940524]

​@@hebl47weird, I always thought it was pronounced Potomac

[@hebl47]

@ It's a common mistake, so don't beat yourself up over it.

[@jcmik]

I really liked that breakdown of the true shape of Exaggerado

[@MaxWattage]

Matt Parker: 18:43 "So there you are, American history in a nutshell: tax and slavery" 😬 Falcon: "He's Out Of Line, But He's Right"

[@syllogism5843]

I found that so funny! 😆

[@mlcastle]

thank you Truman for your attempt. In retaliation, I look forward to pronouncing Thames with a th-sound on my next visit to London.

[@Tfin]

Thames, rhymes with James.

[@blairhoughton7918]

Soft th, like in "the."

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

7:47 - I wonder if one party surveying the line started at the West and worked Eastwards, and another group of surveyors started East and worked West. Attributed to a person named Peter Drucker (correct this Comment if that is wrong) is a method for tunneling through a mountain, with one group of diggers starting on one side, and another on the other. "When they meet, they've dug a tunnel. If they don't meet, they've dug two tunnels".

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

Wikipedia has a fun article on state and international boundaries that have been determined by surveyors' mistakes. It includes a piece of land cut of from the United States by bodies of water, and joined to Canada by land. To drive from this piece of a U.S. State into any other U.S. State, you must drive through Canada. These things start out, often, with such language as "to the point where A and B meet" where "A" and "B" are two different geographic features. Problems arise when A and B turn out to NEVER meet, and the legislators writing the definition didn't know that yet.

[@zzzaphod8507]

Either way. some people find that process boring

[@WTJBlog]

As a matter of practicality, you don’t want borders in the center of roads. Makes it a nightmare for who is going to maintain that road, or whose laws apply when driving on that road.

[@kentslocum]

Depends on which side of the road you're driving on. 😂

[@salange17]

The buck stops w/ Truman the camera guy.

[@planetsoccer99]

it's Tom Hanks' son!

[@nickpsilvestri]

I used to live near the 9th stone. Had a run-in with the property owners when I walked up their driveway to see the stone. They didn't seem to mind!

[@myquealer]

17:20 "Congress tells Washington you can have up to 100 square *meters* somewhere on the Potomac River to be the new capital".. No wonder Virginia backed out; George took way more land than he should have....

[@ChadTanker]

19:26 Imagine if DC was a perfect square shape for 49 years instead of the 46 how good would that have been!

[@marcbarber1231]

I will never stop being amazed at Matt's ability to record planned throws to future Matt.

[@HistoryisAwkward]

If you every have more time in the Area and like markers, I highly recommend the C&O canal. The Paw Paw Tunnel is also a lovely optical illusion.

[@notthere83]

Matt being excited about a house number being rotationally symmetrical reminded me of seeing sums like that when I worked at a grocery store checkout. Unlike here, customers did not understand my excitement. 😆

[@jell0goeswiggle]

>Perfect Square >90⁰ >Globe Matt Parker, you fool! You've opened yourself up to pedants everywhere! (Or perhaps it's a brilliant ploy for engagement.)

[@bbgun061]

So what's the real angle?

[@MarsAnonymous]

@@bbgun061 The question isn't so much about the angle, it's about area. A perfect square on a sphere has always exactly an area of zero.

[@urkerab]

@@bbgun061 90.0000625° according to Wolfram Alpha.

[@blairhoughton7918]

​@@MarsAnonymousThat's the point... ...

[@TehRedBlur]

Colorado actually has 697 sides, making it a a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon.

[@mediumjohnsilver]

Matt, it’s great to see you around my old stomping grounds. A fun walk involving the DC line is to walk the bike path on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge from Virginia to Maryland, cutting across the southernmost (watery) corner of DC. There is a brass marker showing the border of VA and DC and another marker, a few hundred feet farther, showing when you cross from DC into MD.

[@bbgun061]

Surely you would ride on the bike path...

[@Blutzen]

@@bbgun061 Don't be silly, Americans don't have bikes, so we just walk these paths.

[@bbgun061]

@@Blutzen oh, of course. Silly me.

[@martinj.9528]

I had no idea I lived only a 20 minute walk from the west corner stone! Grabbed the kids and dog and took a look. Cool little park with fun history! Thanks for this 😁

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

19:20 - Sometimes jurisdictional cession needs some follow-up. Long ago the county courthouse in my home town left the middle of the town square because it needed to be much larger. I think the building wasn't built durably enough and couldn't be saved. At all events it was torn down. The Feds put a U.S. Post-Office in a new building on the same land, jurisdiction of which was duly transferred by statutes enacted by both sides. Later. the Post-Office outgrew the facility and relocated a few blocks away. The Feds enacted a statute that repudiated jurisdiction over the vacated land back to the State. But the State where my home town is located has a law on the books that says it doesn't have jurisdiction just because someone else (the Feds or a neighboring State, for instance) has passed a law ceding jurisdiction to my home State. It's not effective, this law in my State says, until my State passes a law ACCEPTING the jurisdiction being ceded. And with regards to this former Post-Office, my State has never passed the required law (unless they did so since the last time I checked). So, allegedly, you can do anything you'd like to do on that plot of land or in the building situated on it, without fear of being prosecuted. Something similar is alleged concerning a thin stripe of land in Yellowstone National Park. So they say.

[@micomator]

The video and colour grading are really great here

[@daniel_bohrer]

Matt at 1:47: "You can't actually walk exactly along the border the whole way, it's not publicly accessible" GeoWizard, Archie and Adam Fieldhouse, Marcus the Chess Teacher: "Challenge Accepted!"

[@heighRick]

Thanks for a great video Matt, helps a lot!

[@thenayancat8802]

"Up to 100 square metres"? Small capital I'd have said, but they made it work

[@sebastianjoseph2828]

A couple years ago I biked the boundary of DC (roughly) by following Western, Eastern, and Southern Ave for as much of their length as possible and then taking the Mount Vernon Trail and Capital Crescent to finish the river boundary (fun fact: Maryland and DC's border goes all the way up to the shoreline of Virginia so it owns all of the Potomac that flows past it). This video really neat. FYI that government owned site off the bike trail is the Washington Aqueduct. Even with the river crossing you probably picked the easiest side to trek across. Following Eastern Ave would mean diversions for the red line of the metro and Anacostia River. Following Southern Ave would mean a diversion around an apartment by Branch Ave, Oxon Creek, and somehow treking through the woods to Blue Plains and Fox's Ferry for the 8th and 9th Stone. Not to mention both those sides have some intense hills!

[@PopeLando]

As ever, blown away whenever I'm reminded that Chevy Chase is a placename.

[@ilhuikar]

Yeah, nice of them to name a place in his honor!

[@blairhoughton7918]

Of at least 3 places, including the original in Scotland.

[@apoema42]

Brazil's Federal District is also planned and if very rectangular. The north and south borders are perfect lines but the the west and east border follows some rivers that run in the North-South direction but not perfectly.

[@jaspermcjasper3672]

The reason Washington D.C. isn't a perfect square (rotated 45 degrees to be what some would call a "diamond", as in baseball) is because the 18th-century surveyor James Parker (Matt's ancestor) didn't properly envision a tilted square on an ideal sphere (with an Equator and Poles). He felt that if you picked the center-location of the square, and went North and South (along a longitude-line) by "x" degrees of longitude to plot the Northern and Southern corners (respectively), and then went East and West of the center also by exactly the same "x" degrees of latitude to plot the Eastern and Western corners (respectively), the result is the corners of a sphere's version of square, which is true only if the center-location was on the Equator. Otherwise, you end up with a Parker Square, not a true square. Another shape (on the surface of an ideal sphere with an Equator and Poles) sometimes called a "Parker Square" is a region wherein (a) the North and South boundaries are lines of latitude, (b) the East and West boundaries are lines of longitude, and (c) the sides are fudgingly asserted to be "equal" because the degree-measure difference between the two latitudes is equal to the degree-measure difference between the two longitudes.

[@PauxloE]

But I think it's a lot squarer than what would have resulted from that mistake.

[@djcfrompt]

If it's on the surface of a perfect sphere, surely it doesn't matter where it's located on the surface of the sphere? Location only matters on an imperfect oblation spheroid like Earth, right?

[@urkerab]

Then again I think Matt made the reverse mistake by plotting the latitudes and longitudes on a flat surface rather than in proper 3D.

[@blairhoughton7918]

​@@djcfromptA "square" with North side defined at 90 degrees latitude and south side at 80 degrees latitude is actually a "triangle". So it can matter a lot where you are on the sphere once you cage it in coordinates.

[@drdca8263]

@@blairhoughton7918But in a coordinated agnostic way, it will never be a perfect square?

[@markdmeadows]

As a lifelong Virginia resident and map nerd who grew up in the area I have been to all four of the DC corners and quite a few of the easily accessible boundary markers.

[@Adam-ds1ik]

@19:53 the corner is the 11th one not the 10th one. Fence post problem

[@blairhoughton7918]

But was the other corner the 1st one of this side or the 11th one of the coterminous side? We might need 44 markers!

[@celestial_crash0]

Matt: “Perfect..”, “Exact…”. Hundreths Place: Am I a joke to you?

[@blairhoughton7918]

%: ! π: ? %: !! π: ~...

[@1d10talert]

at least you tried, Truman, at least you tried.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

Not military land, just a reservoir. Since DC is federal territory, its water supply infrastructure was built by the US government (in the wake of a fire which had destroyed the Library of Congress), and in the 1850s, the only engineering entity that Congress had at its disposal was the Army Corps of Engineers.

[@user-oh9zn3fn9m]

"our old nemesis spherical geometry"

[@QuantumHistorian]

Which made me think, is there an agreed-upon definition for a rectangle in spherical geometry? 4 arcs of great circles intersecting at 90 degrees maybe?

[@dodopod]

@@QuantumHistorian I'm fairly certain it's impossible for 4 great circle arcs to intersect at 90°. At least one of the angles has to be obtuse. I think it's good enough to count as a rectangle if all four angles are equal.

[@debblez]

18:43 I’ve never heard it summed up so concisely

[@Tikoty]

In North America, the property line between the lot and the street is generally quite a ways inside the fences of the yards. So technically, the municipality owns the property up to that line and could widen the roadway that far if the need arose. But the need generally doesn't arise, so we generally accept that that property kind of belongs to the landowner (but it doesn't legally), and we expect the landowner to maintain it. There are usually by-laws to require the property owner to maintain that property and even the space between the sidewalk and the roadway if there is one. They have to cut the grass and clear the snow, etc. If you looked for the water meter, you would find it inside the fence where the actual property line is. Those stones were on the property line, too, so you would probably been able to go up to them (not legal advice), but I think you made the right decision to not annoy the landowners.

[@bbgun061]

Sometimes the property line is in the middle of the street but there's an easement to allow public access.

[@blairhoughton7918]

There's nothing stopping jurisdictional boundaries from going through properties. Water meters are no indication of anything, btw. They're not installed by surveyors.

[@finlandtaipan4454]

@@blairhoughton7918 Correct: there are several residential and commercial parcels in my metro that strand city lines and even county lines. And a school that strands two counties. And sizable communities whose postal address is from another county. In other states, a city might span parts of multiple counties.

[@vvalerio77]

Thank you for your efforts, Truman.

[@rdreher7380]

The camera guy trying to correct their horrid pronunciation XD My hero.

[@gregb869]

So cool to see Matt walking through my neighborhood. Wish i would have seen him

[@daniellambert6207]

22:09 I find it fun that if KZbin ever retroactively removes QR-codes from historical videos, it's possible they'll miss this one with the cutout :D

[@ChristopherHallWayne]

I like to believe someone in the team found the maximal cutout allowed while still having a working QR code

[@jwilder2251]

Lived in the area for 20 years, never even heard of these stones before. This is fascinating!

[@blairhoughton7918]

Lots of things we don't know. They made a documentary about some of them called National Treasure, with Nick Cage as narrator.

[@WidgerCentral]

Unpopular (Popular?) Opinion: A rectangle on a sphere is a rectangle. 🙂

[@0LoneTech]

I agree. However, they either don't have straight sides (e.g. lines of latitude off the equator) or aren't quadrilaterals (e.g. octant covering equilateral rectangular triangles, or quadrant covering right angle sectors).

[@blairhoughton7918]

Except when one side is at 90 degrees latitude.

[@0LoneTech]

@@blairhoughton7918 That's a point, not a side.

[@blairhoughton7918]

@@0LoneTech On a latitude-longitude sphere, it's a side.

[@michaelessig6376]

Props to you for not whining about how steep the hills are across the chain bridge in Virginia. Like straight up a wall.

[@falsemcnuggethope]

they insulted the hills by calling the state flat

[@bbgun061]

DC residents don't get senators or representatives but they do have a non-voting delegate in each house. Plus they get three electoral college votes for President. So they are sorta represented.

[@3HenKiss]

They only have one non-voting delegate in the house of representatives (Eleanor Holmes Norton). I learned in double checking that that DC wasn't able to vote in the presidential elections until 1961. Wow.

[@lukasg4807]

I don't get why they deserve any votes. If you don't like it don't live there, but it seems like your average DC resident probably has a greater chance to impact policy than most Americans. Being neighbors with a senator seems a decent replacement for having one.

[@blairhoughton7918]

​@@3HenKissFor a long time the people of many states weren't voters for Presidents or Senators. And now, maybe none of us are.

[@bbgun061]

@ thanks for the correction.

[@taylor3950]

@@lukasg4807 700,000 people live here. I can assure you that most of us will never see a senator in person

[@Robi2009]

I love Matt's back-pi-ack :D

[@Uuugggg]

@ 6:59 Every time someone says the border to Canada is not straight, they say that's because it's zigzaggy. No, the latitude line is not straight in the first place!

[@blairhoughton7918]

The latitude line is a curve of constant curvature. That doesn't explain the mess that is the border line.

[@thepatchinatior]

I can't believe you were here and I missed you

[@thepatchinatior]

I live on Eastern Ave, on the DC/MD border in Silver Spring

[@SkyGravity137]

DC isn't a square because it's square root is XXIV and a half

[@lamoustachedecailles6085]

You are a treasure of the world Matt.

[@appa609]

Potomac River = River McRiver

[@davidioanhedges]

River son of river

[@archivist17]

My theory is that they were trying to lay out a baseball pitch, but got their sums a bit wrong.

[@blairhoughton7918]

Fun fact: The baseball diamond is a perfect square, and the "bases" are defined as the points at the corners, but only the bag for second base is centered on the base. First, third, and home are against the insides of their corners. And home plate's shape has corners that stick out. So the open distances from first or third to home are shorter than to second. I have no idea whether anyone has ever tried to figure out exactly how baseball history is changed by this asymmetry, but it has to have mattered to many safe or out calls.

[@LaShoju]

A square state that isn’t a square nor a state. Does this video exist?

[@nicholas_scott]

That was a fun stroll. Arlington Cemetary, Reagan airport, pentagon, crystal city and pentagon city all feel like they are practically part of DC.

[@blairhoughton7918]

Still a lot of federal property, just not jurisdictionally the same city.

[@sophiagush8624]

6.18 dunkin is well known for being a "local independent chain"

[@seevernet1]

If he goes to Boston he better drink a Compass.

[@blairhoughton7918]

They have stores all over central Britain, TIL...

[@hemtic]

You can usually tell if you're in DC or Maryland by the curb. Maryland will have a normal concrete curb and DC will have a stone very sharp edged curb.

[@silaspearson8666]

0:06 As a Virginian I’m happy that you came to pay us a visit. As your biggest fan I’m sad to find out you didn’t give me a shout while you were in town

[@Pyrobob4]

Getting strong "the cheese is under the sauce" vibes from Truman at 15:10