Where Am I

If someone were to ask you to name the points of the United States of America that were furthest to the North, East, West, and South what would your answers be?

Some people might answer Alaska, Maine, California, and Florida.  Only one of those four choices is true.  The correct answers would be Alaska, Alaska, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Why?  Well, we all can easily agree Alaska is the farthest to the north.  Yes, we forgot about Hawaii when thinking of South, but is Hawaii actually South of Florida?  Yes, easily, it is below the Equator, far South of Florida.

Now we get into that tricky East and West thingy.  First one would have to ask a question.  East or West of what?  Unlike the North and South, there are no East and West Poles to use as a reference point.  The only things close to that are the Prime Meridian (North and South through England) and the Antimeridian, exactly 180 degrees from each other.  If we were to call everything West of the Prime Meridian the Western Hemisphere, then the Eastern Hemisphere would have to be the other half of the world.  Right?

Because of the above, then you will find that the outer islands of the Aleutian Chain off Alaska extend past the Antimeridian, thus they are in the Eastern Hemisphere, and it follows they are East of the rest of the United States.  Thus Alaska is more North, East, and West than any other points in the United States.