Draw a 10000km Circle Around Lansing on a Map

I discovered Ely, Nevada's homepage recently and particularly enjoyed it: Ely, Nevada Home Page., but particularly for the judgement (about the lesser of the folio): "Centrally located in the intermountain w, Ely and the surrounding area contains a population of over 6 million people inside a 500 mile radius."

I loved the humor and inventiveness evident in that judgement. And and then I thought, "What questions could I ask to make sense of this statement? How could I share this statement with a math form?" I considered the questions:

• In lodge to engage in answering any of the questions beneath, what tools can I employ?
  • Is at that place an online tool that, given a map, would create the circumvolve for me? Is there a tool that would add up the populations for me?
  • Creating the circle (if using the map, figuring out scales, etc. is important):
    • Get a map of United states (either a folded map or print out a map from Google Maps) and a compass, mensurate the size of "500 miles" and use the compass to create a circle
    • Get a digital map of US and use GeoGebra to draw a circle (depending on how precise I want)
  • Finding populations:
    • How precise should I exist?
    • Should I choose the largest cities, and wait up the metro populations? What is my "cut-off betoken" for urban center size?
    • How far would I be under-estimating, if I don't count all of the smaller towns and cities?
• What does "surrounding expanse" really mean?
  • If I draw my intuitive sense of what "surrounding area" means on a map, how big of an area does it include? Do my classmates accept like or different ideas well-nigh the size of "surrounding area"?
  • How big of a radius should I use to include the whole Us? Where would I center it? How much of Canada, Mexico, or other countries would be included?
• How big is a region with a 500-mile radius?
  • What cities / metro areas are included in the 500-mile radius circle centered at Ely?
  • Could they have called a smaller radius and nonetheless included an impressive population?
  • Are there particular cities they wanted to include that inspired their option of 500 miles?
• Where I am at present (in East Lansing, MI):
  • If I created a round region of radius 500 miles centered on Eastward Lansing
    • How many people would be contained in that region?
    • What cities would be independent in that region?
  • If I wanted to include a population of six one thousand thousand people, how large should the radius be, if I centered the circle on E Lansing?

I will try to engage in this chore when I have more than fourth dimension…

In social club to engage in answering any of the questions below, what tools tin can I use?

• Is in that location an online tool that, given a map, would create the circle for me?
  • Yes, I institute: http://world wide web.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm.
  • And, so I also found that the same site volition estimate population in the circle (Which begs the questions: Based on what data? How authentic is it?): http://www.freemaptools.com/notice-population.htm  I too found that estimating was overnice for me – I was surprised at the populations of some states and metro areas.
• Is there a tool that would add upwards the populations for me?
• Finding populations:
• • How precise should I exist?
  • Should I choose the largest cities, and look up the metro populations? What is my "cutting-off point" for urban center size?
  • How far would I be under-estimating, if I don't count all of the smaller towns and cities?

How big is a region with a 500-mile radius?

• What cities / metro areas are included in the 500-mile radius circle centered at Ely?The map shows some large cities are: Salt Lake, Ogden, Provo, Las Vegas, Reno, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, Tijuana (Mexico), Boise, Idaho Falls
  • I'g going to approximate the population. I notice that all of Nevada (2.839 million) and Utah (2.943 million) are contained. So that's already near 6 million people! Most of California is independent, except for a tiny piece in the northwest that includes Crescent and Eureka, and California has population 38.viii one thousand thousand – let's be conservative and knock off about viii.eight one thousand thousand for that tiny corner and we still have 36 one thousand thousand contained. The Phoenix metro area adds well-nigh three million. Tijuana adds nigh i.483 million. Boise (0.616) and Idaho Falls (0.130) add a little less than a million. I could keep adding on, just a low estimate is still over 40 1000000.
  • I establish that the same site I used to create the circle also will judge population within the radius, and information technology says "The estimated population in the defined area is 49,997,320."
• Could they have chosen a smaller radius and withal included an impressive population?
  • I'one thousand going to guesstimate and say 250-300 mile radius would probably still include 6 one thousand thousand people.
  • Permit me test my conjecture. (Note that I needed to reset the site before changing the radius, or it told me the same population every bit higher up.)  I entered 250 miles and was told "The estimated population in the divers area is 4,331,681."  300 miles was closer with v,438,487, and 315 was slightly more half dozen meg with 6,396,013.
  • 
• Are there particular cities they wanted to include that inspired their choice of 500 miles?
  • I'thousand guessing it is absurd to say that San Fran and other California cities are "in the surrounding area."

Where I am now (in East Lansing, MI):

If I created a circular region of radius 500 miles centered on East Lansing

• How many people would exist independent in that region?Well, it includes all of Michigan (ix.91), Wisconsin (5.758), Illinois (12.88), Indiana (6.597), Ohio (11.59), West Virginia (i.85), Washington, D.C. (0.658), and Kentucky (4.413). So, every bit a low gauge, a 500-mile region would include a population ofat least53.656 meg.
• I was much, much too low! With the population finder, I found  the estimated population in the defined area is 101,594,400

• If I wanted to include a population of half-dozen one thousand thousand people, how large should the radius be, if I centered the circle on East Lansing?I conjecture xc miles. Metro areas for Detroit (3.734), Lansing (0.464), Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland (1.321), Kalamazoo (0.326), and Flintstone (0.425) would be just over 6 million.

I'thousand actually nether-estimating though, because I choose to balance fourth dimension over precision (fourth dimension of looking up populations), but the radius around Eastward Lansing of xc miles would definitely include vi one thousand thousand people.Using the population tool, I found that 75 miles radius would include 6,795,008 people.

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Source: https://erynmstehr.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/ely-nevada-and-its-surrounding-area/

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