Visiting Every Latitude and Longitude Intersection

Kevin A. Pieckiel writes "The Degree Confluence Project's goal is to visit every latitude and logitude degree integer intersection in the world and journal it on this web site. An excerpt: 'The project is an organized sampling of the world. There is a confluence within 49 miles (79 km) of you if you're on the surface of Earth. We've discounted confluences in the oceans and some near the poles, but there are still 12,889 to be found.' A neat project, indeed." As Timothy noted, I've posted before, and in Slashback form; a while back.

Comments

What the heck is a confluence anyway?

[ElDuderino44137]

"The Degree Confluence Project's goal is to visit every latitude and logitude degree integer intersection ..."

Hey There ...

As often happens I've come across a word I just don't understand.
As often as this happens ...
My wife seems to know what that word, does, infact, mean.

Confluence, she says.
I think that they mean intersection.

"Clearly."
(Smart. Yet obtuse.)

I think confluence denotes a set of rivers or streams. Do they only mean to say intersections of waterways?

"Clearly not."

So I head over to dictionary.com.

con.flu.ence (n.):
1a) A flowing together of two or more streams.
1b) The point of juncture of such streams.
1c) The combined stream formed by this juncture.
2) A gathering, flowing, or meeting together at one juncture or point:
"A confluence of negative events conspired to bring down bond prices" (Michael Gonzalez).

So I guess the question is:
I can see the intent for the use of the word.
But to me it seems like a bit of a stretch.
More of a literary license.

Yes. The question:
Do I simply require access to a better dictionary?

Cheers,
--The Dude