What is the geographical center of Polk County, Florida?
I’m trying to think of a simple way to calculate this, given a map or something else that you would have access to. Nothing comes to mind immediately. Anyway, the low-tech way to find center of mass would be to get a map of the county — a USGS survey one would be great — and then use some spray-glue to attach it to a foam-core project board. Those are pretty uniform in terms of thickness and weight, usually. Then, you very carefully cut out along the county border, through the map and the board, with an X-Acto knife. You find the geographic center by hanging the cutout board from a pin placed in the corners, with a plumb line falling from it. You mark the plumb line, and where they intersect is the CoM. See this page for a diagram. If you’re careful when drawing the lines, you should be able to find the CoM with reasonable accuracy (depending, obviously, on the size of the county — w
