First choose any US city by entering it and choosing it in the drop-down box. Then, name any US city in each 100 mile circle/ring as the rings expand outward from your city of choice, trying to name SECOND LARGEST city in each circle. The first circle will include your city of choice as a possible answer.
PLEASE NOTE - You must type a '.' (period) after each city to submit it to prevent answering another city with a name you would be have to type to get your answer. If multiple cities have the name you submitted, only the largest one will be counted.
You accumulate points based on the population of the city you named in relation to the second largest city in the circle. A smaller city’s point total will be the ratio of its population to the largest, so if you name a city of 75K people and the largest city has 100K, you get 75 points. Naming the largest city will get you points based on the ratio of the 2nd largest city's population to the largest city's.
When you run out of time or end the quiz, you will see the current ring’s 2nd largest city at right (under ‘Answer Stats’ by your coordinates).
For example, if you choose ‘Chicago’ – you will be shown a circle of radius 100 miles centered at Chicago. Naming any city in this circle (including Chicago) will cause another ‘ring’ of radius 100 miles to appear outside that circle, however - you will want to try naming the SECOND LARGEST city you can to get more points. After completing that circle, you now need to name any US city in the new ring (but not within any previous circles/rings), again trying to name the 2nd largest city. If there are not two cities within the next ring of that distance, the ring will keep expanding by that distance until two cities fall within it.
I swear I got everything in Virginia…
Yeah. Something’s up with Virginia. I’ve looked it over and over again. It appears to be all filled in, yet it’s not counted as complete.
I think some of the counties that have cities within them are showing the city as complete even though it’s not, it’s an issue with how shapefiles (the polygons on the map) work. So you’re probably missing one of the city enclaves completely surrounded by a county.
Quiz stopped counting after 1790, once I completed the quiz there was no confetti!!
Oh no 🙁 Probably just something one-off? Had no other complaints on this quiz and haven’t changed the code at all. Sorry!
Why are some of the boroughs in Alaska weirdly shaded? For example, Chugach. Also, when Maui County in Hawaii is entered, only the island of Maui is shaded and Lanai, Kaho’olawe and Molokai Islands are not highlighted? Also, when Manassas Park in Virginia is entered, Prince William County is shaded.
I think it’s just shapefile (the actual polygons) issues, some of them may not be exact as they have been simplified a little to speed up loading all the polygons.
It would be fun if a second version of this quiz tracked population like the US places maps do, and if duplicated names needed the state abbreviation after it, so typing LakeOR and LakeIL and so on (and yes, I know my idea of “fun” is warped, oh well).
This does sound fun
I have trouble getting Virginia to fill. I run down the list, see it is all red, still does not tally. Thoughts?
costa contra county in CA doesn’t work
It’s Contra Costa
Valdez-Cordova Census Area in Alaska failed
It doesn’t exist anymore – replaced with two new areas.
None of the Connecticut counties are filling in for me. Other states are working so far.
CT now has Planning Regions instead of counties
Update to my post re: Connecticut. I saw the comments below about the change to regions. All fill out except for Metropolitan. Don’t understand why they changed the names. Could have kept them as most were the largest city in the region.
It’s called “Capitol” – not Metropolitan.
Greater Bridgeport is also called Metropolitan. I don’t 100% understand it, but it seems that while the “Planning regions” and “councils of government” are completely coextensive with each other, and 8/9 of them have the same names as their counterparts, Greater Bridgeport/Metropolitan has a different name for the two.
Lower Connecticut River Valley is also often called “River” for short; could be an alternate answer to save everyone some time
I’ll add Metropolitan as an alternative answer. Planning regions are the new county equivalents, so that is what I’m using now for CT instead of their traditional counties.
Update – CT has officially changed from counties to Planning Regions – 9 new answers replace the 8 former counties 🙂
Boo!
Agree. I’m going to take it up with the CT government.
Bedford Independent city in Virginia ceased to exist almost 9 years ago https://web.archive.org/web/20170801044750/http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_5dcbc886-e1e9-11e2-a412-001a4bcf6878.html
Also many of the boundaries of the Virginia independent cites are corrupt or something and they shade in the adjacent counties when they are guessed (Manassas park, Salem, Staunton etc.).
only Bedford county is in the list for this quiz, Bedford city isn’t. And yeah the cities kinda fill in weird, it’s just a shapefile issue.
I processed mortgage release documents for a major mortgage company and we sent many to Beford. Was it maybe combined with another jurisdiction but still valid?
bedford county PA, TN, VA
Love this quiz. It would be cool to have a similar one except for guessing the county seats.
agree!
I’d enjoy having a +x indicator by the county of Counties, letting you know how many you added. Always neat to see which guesses are the most effective.
Schley County, GA has the lowest guess rate that I have found, at 27.18%. Wonder what the lowest is.
Schley is 5th least guessed…1st least is Metcalfe County, KY with 26.61%.
ha, i knew that.
Not true anymore though…probably because of people scrolling down to see these comments.
damn this was hard..