Squares and Odd Shapes

I just finished an excellent book called Measuring America, by Andro Linklater. It's hard to believe a book about surveying and measurement could be fascinating, but it was. The book, which actually included a lot of information about measurement in Europe, makes the very interesting point that the way land was divided in the northern and western U.S. states was one of the main reasons for the great economic growth of those areas, while the different way it was divided in the southern states hindered economic growth.

In the North it was divided into (with some sloppy exceptions) exact six-mile squares, while in the South it was cut up any which way depending on what land a purchaser wanted to buy. This, of course, was harder to survey, and thus more prone to mistakes, and for that reason there have been unending and expensive boundary disputes in the southern states.

Lots more good stuff, but that's a taste.