Extreme States of America Trivia
Extreme States of America Trivia by http://www.guruparents.com
Here’s a good little trivia question to help get kids interested in geography:
What are the northern, southern, eastern and western most states in America?
Let’s start with north – the answer is Alaska, that’s easy.
What about south. Without a globe you might wonder if it’s Hawaii or Florida. But a globe makes it clear: the Hawaiian Islands straddle this line of latitude (20 degrees North). Tracing this over, and we’re a long way south of Florida – indeed we’re nearly south of Cuba. So Hawaii is the southernmost state.
As for western, well Hawaii is close, but moving up you can see that parts of Alaska are further to the west.
Now comes the fun bit – what is the easternmost state? Lots of people will say, “that’s easy, it’s Maine!” And looking here, yep Maine is certainly further to the east than any other nearby state. But the answer isn’t Maine!
It’s Alaska!
Alaska?!
But it’s way over to the west.
Yes it is, but look: this is the 180th meridian of longitude. This is where east meets west.
And just here, these islands of Alaska, some of the Aleutian Islands are on the other side of the meridian – and therefore are in the Eastern hemisphere.
For some real trivia, the easternmost part of America is a place callled Semisopochnoi Island.
Not convinced. Well here’s another way of looking at it. Let’s go back to Maine, the easternmost state of mainland America. If we keep going east and keep going and keep going, this is where we get to – these same Aleutian Islands – miles and miles further east than anywhere else in America.
So, there you have it: the southernmost state of America is Hawaii. And the northern, western and eastern most state is Alaska!
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