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<blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1675508" data-attributes="member: 10201">Sure, but that's population density, not population. I'm not sure which is the more relevant thing to consider in this case, but i suspect total population is, since, as was pointed out, you want the largest number of people within driving radius (and a convenient airport for the rest). Without actually doing the math, I doubt that the higher density of the NE and Mid-Atlantic states makes up for the larger area of the further-west and Midwest states (the higher-population ones, like IN and IL, at least), plus the half of the circle-of-driveable-distance that is water with essentially 0 population density if you pick a near-coastal location. And i don't feel like doing a proper weighted average to calculate these things--i presume the 2-D equivalent of a best-fit test: sqrt(sum[i=1..n](population * (distance)^2)), would be required, and it's been too many years since i've turned such a sum into an integral, even if i had the population data to do it with.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="woodelf, post: 1675508, member: 10201"] Sure, but that's population density, not population. I'm not sure which is the more relevant thing to consider in this case, but i suspect total population is, since, as was pointed out, you want the largest number of people within driving radius (and a convenient airport for the rest). Without actually doing the math, I doubt that the higher density of the NE and Mid-Atlantic states makes up for the larger area of the further-west and Midwest states (the higher-population ones, like IN and IL, at least), [b]plus[/b] the half of the circle-of-driveable-distance that is water with essentially 0 population density if you pick a near-coastal location. And i don't feel like doing a proper weighted average to calculate these things--i presume the 2-D equivalent of a best-fit test: sqrt(sum[i=1..n](population[i] * (distance[i])^2)), would be required, and it's been too many years since i've turned such a sum into an integral, even if i had the population data to do it with.[/i][/i] [/QUOTE]

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