What two states are shaped like rectangles?

Answer 1

Colorado and Wyoming appear rectangular on Mercator projection maps but they are not really rectangular.

1. The northern borders are significantly shorter than their southern borders because longitudes converge at the north pole.

2. The northern borders are actually curved since they follow circles of latitude.

3. The eastern and western borders are curved also since they follow the shape of the earth. They would appear straight from directly overhead in space (if you could see them) but they actually would curve away from you towards their northern and southern extremes.

4. The state borders are now officially based on physical monuments which were placed by surveyors. In some case the monuments are off by up to a mile. So, in reality, Colorado and Wyoming have many "sides"...not just 4.

Answer 2

Many states are roughly shaped like rectangles, but the two closest are Colorado and Wyoming. They are far from perfect rectangles, however, as both are drawn to adhere to the curvature of latitude and longitude, plus both have minor "jogs" in the lines. Some maps don't show this, however.

Answer 3

Wyoming and Colorado appear to be perfect rectangles on some maps (Mercator Projections), but they are not, for several reasons. Their northern borders are significantly shorter than their southern borders because lines of longitude (which defined their shapes) actually converge as you move towards the poles. You can see this on an Equal Area projection map. Also, when you look at an Equal Area projection map you can see that the northern and southern borders are curved. These curves are actually segments (arcs) of circles of latitude with their center on the axis of the earth and each circle being about 6000 miles in diameter. The actual shape of Colorado's borders is very close to a Latitude Longitude Quadrangle which is a section of the surface of a sphere. Close, and not exact, because the earth isn't completely spherical and because the actual borders now contain human errors due to surveying inaccuracies...and the monuments that were placed during surveying of the borders have now become the official definition of the borders.

http://coloradostateofmind.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/map.jpg

Answer 4

South Dakota.

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Many have a rough shape of a rectangle, but Wyoming and Colorado seem to be nearest to a true rectangle.

Answer 5

No state is an exact rectangle. The two states that most resemble rectangles are Colorado and Wyoming. They are located in the western region.

Answer 6

Wyoming and Colorado

Answer 7

Is Wyoming and Colorado

Answer 8

colorado

wyoming