Where is the geographic centre of South Africa?

[LeonDude]

You can’t use the plumbline method for this, reason being scale. Even if you print a massive 6 x 6 meter big map of SA, if you pin it up, you would never with the eye get the position of the pin right.

[White Rhino]

Agree, you would need a precise projection of the spherical shape as a starting point making your chances of getting to a pinpoint location more of an art than a science.

[Heimer]

I started this thread and have seen it develop and also learned a moerse lot about how to do this geo centering. 

So do we have a (close to) final answer?

Because next, I would like to know the individual provinces as well.  I am itching for a senseless trip to all these waypoints. Maybe I will go plant a geocache at each...

[Sláinte Mhaith]

You can’t use the plumbline method for this, reason being scale. Even if you print a massive 6 x 6 meter big map of SA, if you pin it up, you would never with the eye get the position of the pin right.

Which position? According to the method you can pin it in any position as long as it is close to the border?

The map can rotate and will balance with half the weight on the left and half on the right of the plumb line.

[White Rhino]

Unless you feel nostalgic, why would you want to use paper and string when you've got Google Earth with all the spherical locating capability down to seconds (metres) ?

[LeonDude]

You can’t use the plumbline method for this, reason being scale. Even if you print a massive 6 x 6 meter big map of SA, if you pin it up, you would never with the eye get the position of the pin right.

Which position? According to the method you can pin it in any position as long as it is close to the border?

The map can rotate and will balance with half the weight on the left and half on the right of the plumb line.

Any position, it's all about scale. If you print a map of SA on something like an A4 paper, your scale would be quite a couple of kilometers to the millimeter. The hole your pin makes would be about a millimeter. Therefore, your position would be out by many kilometers.

[LeonDude]

These guys don’t want to know in which province or town, they want to know with accuracy as in coords. The plumb line method just cannot give you this.

[Sláinte Mhaith]

Any position, it's all about scale. If you print a map of SA on something like an A4 paper, your scale would be quite a couple of kilometers to the millimeter. The hole your pin makes would be about a millimeter. Therefore, your position would be out by many kilometers.

Aaahhh, the pinhole of the centre point. Now I understand.

The guys who could calculate it electronically lost interest in this thread.

[The Rock]

jislaaik! have you guys still not made up your minds?

[RobC]

I still like the simple method I proposed...

[White Rhino]

jislaaik! have you guys still not made up your minds?

Don't be silly this is done by committee 

Things take time - just like our government 

[XTFREAK]

Maybe we should start another thread to discuss starting a thread to find the spot?? Just asking?

[White Rhino]

Maybe we should start another thread to discuss starting a thread to find the spot?? Just asking?

Yeah, then we can find the common spot of all of the threads to find the real thread 

[GRIM]

The guys who could calculate it electronically lost interest in this thread.

 

Here you go... 

PROVNAME   CentroidX                          CentroidY
Eastern Cape   26° 26' 46.898" E    32° 9' 14.499" S
Free State           26° 52' 2.150" E      28° 36' 51.852" S
Gauteng           28° 11' 51.183" E   26° 4' 31.572" S
KwaZulu-Natal   30° 44' 54.812" E   28° 42' 59.707" S
Mpumalanga   30° 17' 56.335" E   25° 52' 25.144" S
Northern Cape   21° 24' 10.114" E   29° 27' 12.258" S
Limpopo           29° 17' 23.148" E   23° 47' 7.207" S
North West   25° 32' 54.452" E   26° 16' 13.495" S
Western Cape   20° 36' 57.737" E   33° 0' 52.372" S
South Africa   25° 5' 38.087" E           28° 59' 43.146" S

[Heimer]

Grim, jou doring 

Who will be the first to visit the lot?

(If they are all accessible...  )

[RobC]

SA 25° 5' 38.087" E           28° 59' 43.146" S

Is near Paardeberg, scene of the Boer War battle. Been down that bit of dirt when I did the "Follow the river" ride.

[RobC]

Grim, jou doring 

Who will be the first to visit the lot?

(If they are all accessible...  )

Gooi the co-ord on Googlemaps... works lekker!

[RobC]

The guys who could calculate it electronically lost interest in this thread.

 

Here you go... 

PROVNAME   CentroidX                          CentroidY
Eastern Cape   26° 26' 46.898" E    32° 9' 14.499" S
Free State           26° 52' 2.150" E      28° 36' 51.852" S
Gauteng           28° 11' 51.183" E   26° 4' 31.572" S
KwaZulu-Natal   30° 44' 54.812" E   28° 42' 59.707" S
Mpumalanga   30° 17' 56.335" E   25° 52' 25.144" S
Northern Cape   21° 24' 10.114" E   29° 27' 12.258" S
Limpopo           29° 17' 23.148" E   23° 47' 7.207" S
North West   25° 32' 54.452" E   26° 16' 13.495" S
Western Cape   20° 36' 57.737" E   33° 0' 52.372" S
South Africa   25° 5' 38.087" E           28° 59' 43.146" S

That is 10 centroids to plot and visit then! Great stuff!

[tok-tokkie]

You can’t use the plumbline method for this, reason being scale. Even if you print a massive 6 x 6 meter big map of SA, if you pin it up, you would never with the eye get the position of the pin right.

Well the electronic version does it that way.  Gives 25°  5'    38 " E   28° 59'  43" S
Halving the lat & long extremities gives                   24°  40'  23"  E   28° 28'  45" S
Plumbline is the method I prefer.

[Lourens ツ]

Here are Grim's points in a gpx file.