the shape of Colorado looks so boring and rectangular on a map but it's not like that at all and moreover it's not just four sides but as many as 697 and here's why in 1876 Congress defined the borders of Colorado as a rectangle stretching from 37 to 41 latitude and from 25 to 32 longitude from Washington DC still a rectangle right however if we look at a globe we can see that the lines of latitude are parallel while the lines of longitude converge at the poles creating a restriction so the northern boundary of the state is shorter and now we can see a trapezoid instead of a rectangle but what about the number of sides it still looks like Colorado has four sides in 1879 did the boundary survey team begin the process of transferring the card boundaries into real land borders Unfortunately they didn't have Google Maps Navigators or accurate satellites they only had magnetic compasses due to the lack of Technology they thought they were moving in a straight line but were actually zigzagging and making so many sides