Wirt Atmar ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
: Nick writes:
: > The answer given for Alaska is only correct if you are attending
: >  in Greenwich and are counting longtitudes.
: Unfortunately, that's the definition of east and west, just as the equator is
: used to define north and south.

Ah, but there's a fundamental difference, isn't there?  From any point
on the equator, I can travel east forever, but I can travel north only
about 10,000 km.

Or again, I can define the relation "is farther north than" to mean
"is closer to the north pole than," but how shall I define "is farther
east than"?  There's no east pole!

"To the east of" sounds like a simple concept, until one explores the
corner cases.  And doesn't this whole discussion illustrate the problems
that programmers have grappled with for decades?  The specifications
that seemed so clear to the user who wrote them turn out to be
imprecise or surprising when the corner cases start appearing.

Walter