5 ms·

I'm not sure how to word this so forgive me if it doesn't make sense. I was born 'up north' in a very remote community where my parents had to drive two hours (

by hluska 7y ago

I'm not sure how to word this so forgive me if it doesn't make sense. I was born 'up north' in a very remote community where my parents had to drive two hours (down awful roads) to reach the hospital where I was delivered. It is far enough north from where I live now that I could not drive to that community in one day. However, when I look at where that community is located and compare it to Grise Fiord, it is very far south. Heck, it is so far north of where I was born that if you went to where I was born and went a comparable distance south, you would end up in Mexico... Canada is so big that I have trouble imagining how big it really is.

na85 7y ago
My spouse had family from Holland come visit us. They told us they wanted to see Niagara Falls and the Rockies. When we explained it would take a week to drive from Niagara to the Rockies they boggled. It's hard to conceptualize just how vast Canada is when back home you can drive for an hour and pass through three different countries.
- davidw 7y ago
  I lived above a pizza guy in Padova Italy and would occasionally go down to get a slice if I didn't feel like cooking and chat with him a bit. When he realized I was from the US, he went "oooh, America is really big isn't it... what, it's got to be at least 1000 km across, right?!". Try almost 5!
  - thrownblown 7y ago
    Lets not forget Brazil, the mercator projection makes it seem much smaller but in reality it's surface area (8,515,770 Km2) exceeds that of the continental US (8,080,464.3 km2).
- jfim 7y ago
  What I've found useful to convey the relative sizes of countries is to use a website that allows dragging country outlines to somewhere more familiar [0]. That way it's easier to say that driving from one end of the country to another in a few hours isn't really doable because it's the same size as California or the distance from Zurich to Madrid. [0] https://thetruesize.com/ https://thetruesize.com/
  - CobrastanJorji 7y ago
    This is super fun to play with. I was surprised to interactively discover that South Africa was bigger than the Nordic countries.
- hluska 7y ago
  When I was in University, I had a roommate from Germany. He was blown away how if he wanted to drive east from our place to Montreal, it would be around 2900 km. Had he driven that far east from where he is from, he could have ended up in Asia. He joked that if he made that trip in Europe, he would see hundreds of different cultures and hear languages he could barely recognize as language. But here, he could drink Tim Horton's coffee "and hate his life" the whole 2900 km trip. He wasn't big on Tim Horton's.....
BareNakedCoder 7y ago
Yup, Toronto, Canada (where I live) is closer to the equator (in South America) than it is to the North Pole.
- perardi 7y ago
  Oh, I love that comparison. I moved to Toronto from Chicago, and my family and friends are bewildered that I haven't had to buy some sort of exotic encounter suit to survive the tundra.
  - gpm 7y ago
    Lol, the weather in Toronto and Chicago is practically identical. The average temperature difference is a whole two degrees.
    - vinay427 7y ago
      "But it's Canada!" Anyway, yes, growing up very close to the border the weather was predictably virtually identical (usually a degree or two warmer in Toronto, actually) and this seemed to confuse everyone, including Canadians.
    - watersb 7y ago
      Right now in Chicago it's 51 degrees, but in Toronto it's only 14!
- shadowprofile77 7y ago
  I just had to confirm this with a distance measuring check in Google Earth and yep, looks like it's true. Had no idea.
  - 205guy 7y ago
    Just look at the latitude: Toronto is about 43.6 deg north, so about 100 miles or 160km south of the halfway line (45 deg N).
- 7y ago
205guy 7y ago
This seems like a fun math game. Grise Ford is at 76.4 deg north, and the northernmost point of Mexico (near Yuma, AZ) is at 32.7 deg north, for a difference of 43.7 (45 would be half the distance from the equator to the pole). Round up to 44 and split in half, add 33+22, and your hometown is at most 55 deg north. I guess it depends on what part of Canada. In Ontario and Quebec, 55N is the middle of the Canadian shield, a maze of lakes with no roads and almost no settlements (looking at satellite view, because I don't know the area). But out west on the prairie, Edmonton is 54N and while as a USian, I consider it the great white north, it has roads and towns all the way there. And settlements continue further W and N into BC. I have a friend in Ft St John at 56N. Ultimately, there are several roads (more recent) going up to the arctic Ocean (69N at Tuktoyktak, NT, and 71N at Barrow, Alaska). I do get your point though, Canada stretches far north and has lots of empty areas and small communities with low connectivity to the rest of the country. After all, Canada is the second largest country by land area.
- hluska 7y ago
  I really like this reply - that is some seriously good work and you made me laugh. You just about nailed it. Had I done the math, you would have found me to within a few km. Instead, I eyeballed it and we’re about .2 degrees apart. The answer is Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan.

by hluska 7y ago

na85 7y ago

My spouse had family from Holland come visit us. They told us they wanted to see Niagara Falls and the Rockies. When we explained it would take a week to drive from Niagara to the Rockies they boggled. It's hard to conceptualize just how vast Canada is when back home you can drive for an hour and pass through three different countries.

davidw 7y ago
I lived above a pizza guy in Padova Italy and would occasionally go down to get a slice if I didn't feel like cooking and chat with him a bit. When he realized I was from the US, he went "oooh, America is really big isn't it... what, it's got to be at least 1000 km across, right?!". Try almost 5!
- thrownblown 7y ago
  Lets not forget Brazil, the mercator projection makes it seem much smaller but in reality it's surface area (8,515,770 Km2) exceeds that of the continental US (8,080,464.3 km2).
jfim 7y ago
What I've found useful to convey the relative sizes of countries is to use a website that allows dragging country outlines to somewhere more familiar [0]. That way it's easier to say that driving from one end of the country to another in a few hours isn't really doable because it's the same size as California or the distance from Zurich to Madrid. [0] https://thetruesize.com/ https://thetruesize.com/
- CobrastanJorji 7y ago
  This is super fun to play with. I was surprised to interactively discover that South Africa was bigger than the Nordic countries.
hluska 7y ago
When I was in University, I had a roommate from Germany. He was blown away how if he wanted to drive east from our place to Montreal, it would be around 2900 km. Had he driven that far east from where he is from, he could have ended up in Asia. He joked that if he made that trip in Europe, he would see hundreds of different cultures and hear languages he could barely recognize as language. But here, he could drink Tim Horton's coffee "and hate his life" the whole 2900 km trip. He wasn't big on Tim Horton's.....

BareNakedCoder 7y ago

Yup, Toronto, Canada (where I live) is closer to the equator (in South America) than it is to the North Pole.

perardi 7y ago
Oh, I love that comparison. I moved to Toronto from Chicago, and my family and friends are bewildered that I haven't had to buy some sort of exotic encounter suit to survive the tundra.
- gpm 7y ago
  Lol, the weather in Toronto and Chicago is practically identical. The average temperature difference is a whole two degrees.
  - vinay427 7y ago
    "But it's Canada!" Anyway, yes, growing up very close to the border the weather was predictably virtually identical (usually a degree or two warmer in Toronto, actually) and this seemed to confuse everyone, including Canadians.
  - watersb 7y ago
    Right now in Chicago it's 51 degrees, but in Toronto it's only 14!
shadowprofile77 7y ago
I just had to confirm this with a distance measuring check in Google Earth and yep, looks like it's true. Had no idea.
- 205guy 7y ago
  Just look at the latitude: Toronto is about 43.6 deg north, so about 100 miles or 160km south of the halfway line (45 deg N).
7y ago

205guy 7y ago

This seems like a fun math game. Grise Ford is at 76.4 deg north, and the northernmost point of Mexico (near Yuma, AZ) is at 32.7 deg north, for a difference of 43.7 (45 would be half the distance from the equator to the pole). Round up to 44 and split in half, add 33+22, and your hometown is at most 55 deg north. I guess it depends on what part of Canada. In Ontario and Quebec, 55N is the middle of the Canadian shield, a maze of lakes with no roads and almost no settlements (looking at satellite view, because I don't know the area). But out west on the prairie, Edmonton is 54N and while as a USian, I consider it the great white north, it has roads and towns all the way there. And settlements continue further W and N into BC. I have a friend in Ft St John at 56N. Ultimately, there are several roads (more recent) going up to the arctic Ocean (69N at Tuktoyktak, NT, and 71N at Barrow, Alaska). I do get your point though, Canada stretches far north and has lots of empty areas and small communities with low connectivity to the rest of the country. After all, Canada is the second largest country by land area.

hluska 7y ago
I really like this reply - that is some seriously good work and you made me laugh. You just about nailed it. Had I done the math, you would have found me to within a few km. Instead, I eyeballed it and we’re about .2 degrees apart. The answer is Pelican Narrows, Saskatchewan.