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If I had to wager a guess, it would be due to international travel being a bit more difficult for Americans, what with large oceans between us and most the rest
by deadmetheny 9y ago
If I had to wager a guess, it would be due to international travel being a bit more difficult for Americans, what with large oceans between us and most the rest of the world.
That, and the fact that the continental US itself is larger than Europe. I feel like a lot of Europeans don't really realize how vast the USA really is.
- ci5er 9y ago> I feel like a lot of Europeans don't really realize how vast the USA really is. That's true! And conversely - we (Americans) don't really "get" how compact all of Western Europe is. A few years ago, I had a friend fly from Zurich to La Guardia (maybe JFK?), and when he landed he called me in Austin, Texas. He said: "I'll get a rental car now - and see you in several hours". I said: "No you won't."
- deadmetheny 9y agoVery true. I was amazed at the lack of undeveloped land in western Europe, being from the Midwestern USA where most of the land is open.
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoI think that at least part of the problem is that, no matter how big the country is, you print the map on the same sized piece of paper. You make the GIF for the website the same size. This blows peoples' intuitive understanding of the magnitude of the size differences between countries.
- ci5er 9y agoI hadn't thought of that. I have noticed the Mercator projection leading people to think that Canada is larger than Africa, though...