5 ms·
> 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 a
by 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...