United Forty Eight - United 48 States of America - the Main Land Body of USA

United Forty Eight is a better term to describe the Lower 48, because the Lower 48 are north of Hawaii.  Likewise the Contiguous 48 sounds weird.  Rarely do people use the word contiguous, unless they are in a math class. Furthermore United conserves the word United from the United States of America.  Additionally new states may be added, broken up or move away. Thus 48 is not a certain number.

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 Fun Fodder for Mathematical Biology Brains

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UO, UOS, LO, LOS, UFA, UOS, UFN, LFN

Lower 48 is a biased point of view taken from Alaska.  What about Hawaii?  From Hawaii's point of view Lower 48 makes no sense and is rather illogical.

Also if you use the term Lower 48 does that make Alaska the Upper 1?  Likewise Hawaii becomes the Lower 1?

Thus useful acronyms-nick names for Alaska would be UO or UOS meaning Upper One or Upper One State.  You could even call Alaska: the UBO - Upper Big One or the ULO - Upper Larger One.


Thus Hawaii becomes the LO or LOS meaning the Lower One or Lower One State.
 You could even call Hawaii the LLO - the Lower Little One or SLO - Small Lower/Little One.


Nonetheless the UOS and LOS are still apart of the USA but out side the LFE - Lower Forty-Eight. 

But since most teachers and geographers are hung up on Lower Forty-Eight that makes the Mainland 48 boarder to boarder states the LFE or by my suggestion the UFA.

Unless Washington DC becomes a state, then you'd have to change the acronym to UFN or LFN, since it would now be the United Forty-Nine or Lower Forty-Nine.

But  take Hawaii's consideration, UFN and UFE can still be used but U will now mean Upper instead of United.

But most Haiwaiians call the US and Alaska the Mainland so it opens up the acronym for:

MFE  = Mainland Forty-Eight
MUS = Mainland United/Upper States

But if your stuck on Contiguous 48 then feel free to use the term CFE, or in the event that Washington DC becomes a state: CFN - Contiguous 49. 

It's very unlikely but a state may drop out and we'd have the CFS meaning Contiguous Forty-Seven, or LFS or UFS or CFS (Lower Forty-Seven or United Forty-Seven or Contiguous Forty-Seven, respectively)

Whatever you decide to call the current united body of 48 states (which includes DC) as the CFE, LFE, or UFE, they are all a part of the USA.

But.... Lower Forty-Eight makes sense since Alaska is the tallest state after all?