The world

[ghoti_mhic_uait]

Not long ago, we were having a conversation as to whether Boston or Manchester was more northern. Now, apart from the fact that Boston is in Lincolnshire, and thus clearly south of Manchester, I was confused by this.

I still am confused by this, and as I am a bear of very little brain, y'all will have to help.

According to Benedict's globe, and my Peters projection, and I can't find a handy Mercator projection, but I'm sure it's not that much different, according to those sources, the UK is north of all of the US except Alaska.

Is this wrong? Is there some other definition of north which I'm not taking into account?

Comments

[sparrowsion]

Lincolnshire [...] clearly south of Manchester

Erm, why is that clear? (See, to my way of thinking, Licolnshire starts at the Wash and goes north, and the Wash is at much the same latitude as the Wirral, and hence Liverpool and Manchester.)

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

You're riht, it's not clear. Hmm.

[nja.livejournal.com]

I was surprised the other weekend when I visited the Peak District and found myself in Staffordshire - the PD is north of Leicester, and Staffordshire is west. Similarly when I drive east to Norfolk I'm always slightly annoyed when I get to Northamptonshire, which is clearly due south of Leicester and shouldn't be anywhere near Peterborough. Why can't counties stay where they are supposed to be? I wonder if people living around Stamford ever know where they are.

[sparrowsion]

The problem there is that Staffordshire has a definite north-south length, and the Peak District an east-west one. So the nearest points to Leicester may well be directly west and north, but if you go north-west you'll find both of them.