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Pretty cool way to look at it. My take away ... Florida is almost as big as Britain? Wow, I didn't realize how small Britain was.

azinman2 5y ago
… or how big Florida is.
- boringg 5y ago
  I already knew the size of Florida :)
throw_nbvc1234 5y ago
As an American who enjoys soccer, it's crazy when you then overlay the entire football pyramid onto Britain. I don't see how USA soccer (MLS, grassroots, lower leagues ect...) could ever be like the "ideal" of how things are done on the other side of the ocean.
munificent 5y ago
Yes, these images are incidentally an excellent reminder to Europeans of how big the United States is. I read a lot of criticisms of the US from people overseas that seem to rest on a lack of understanding of the scale of the country. The US is huge. A volcanic plume that covers most of Britain or Spain would only cover about half of California. You can wrap your head around it using "Measure distance" in Google Maps and comparing some in the US to Europe. Some examples: - ~1,200 km will take you from London to Valencia. You can fit a straight line that long just in California or Texas. - Miami to Seattle is about as long as Gibralter to Moscow. Tronheim in the Arctic Circle is closer to Cairo than Seattle is to Miami. - Paris is closer to Tehran than San Diego is to Bangor.
- sveme 5y ago
  Bit similar to how everyone misunderstands the size of Africa. Here's a nice toy to play around with for a couple of hours: https://thetruesize.com https://thetruesize.com So it makes sense to compare the US to Europe as a continent. Got it. What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US?
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    > What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? My guess would be population density. The US has ~330M people, Europe has ~748M.
    - lovecg 5y ago
      US is more dense though (going by www.worldometers.info). I think these explanations “why we can’t have good things” are too simplistic. Ignore rail and fiber for a second, and look at commuter air travel for example: European market is much more competitive and prices are much lower than for comparable flights in the US.
      - rootusrootus 5y ago
        I think you should double check, that sounds reversed. US and Europe have similar area but Europe has quite a lot more people.
        perardi 5y ago
        Yeah, Europe is way, way more dense. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA+vs+europe https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA... United States | 36 people/km^2 Europe | 104 people/km^2
        lovecg 5y ago
        Huh. I wonder where this data is from: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-population/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-popula... “The population density in Europe is 34 per Km^2” Edit: duh. They included all of Russia as “Europe”. I stand corrected.
  - munificent 5y ago
    > What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? The main one is just not understanding how difficult transit and logistics is here. I've heard British people complain that we should just put high speed passenger rail all across the country like they did while not realizing that their country is literally 1% of the size of the US and more than ten times the population density. The most sadly hilarious one I see fairly often is Europeans planning vacations to the states and intending to drive across the country in a few days so they can see all the big landmarks on the east and west coasts. It takes a lot longer than they realize.
- cwillu 5y ago
  I find the EU is a better frame of reference for the US than any given country is.
  - munificent 5y ago
    Yes. And to put it in further perspective, the entire EU is still only 43% of the area of the US.
- boringg 5y ago
  Have you ever looked at how big earth is relative to Jupiter to the sun? And how far each one of them truly are from each other? We're terrible at sense of scale :)
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
https://mapfight.xyz/map/gb/#us.fl https://mapfight.xyz/map/gb/#us.fl
ec109685 5y ago
Britain is 1.7 times larger: https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/florida-usa/united-kingdom#:~:text=Florida%20is%20about%201.7%20times,fewer%20people%20live%20in%20Florida https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/flor...)
rootusrootus 5y ago
As another comparison, the UK is just slightly smaller than Oregon. But has 16 times as many people.

azinman2 5y ago

… or how big Florida is.

boringg 5y ago
I already knew the size of Florida :)

throw_nbvc1234 5y ago

As an American who enjoys soccer, it's crazy when you then overlay the entire football pyramid onto Britain. I don't see how USA soccer (MLS, grassroots, lower leagues ect...) could ever be like the "ideal" of how things are done on the other side of the ocean.

munificent 5y ago

Yes, these images are incidentally an excellent reminder to Europeans of how big the United States is. I read a lot of criticisms of the US from people overseas that seem to rest on a lack of understanding of the scale of the country. The US is huge. A volcanic plume that covers most of Britain or Spain would only cover about half of California. You can wrap your head around it using "Measure distance" in Google Maps and comparing some in the US to Europe. Some examples: - ~1,200 km will take you from London to Valencia. You can fit a straight line that long just in California or Texas. - Miami to Seattle is about as long as Gibralter to Moscow. Tronheim in the Arctic Circle is closer to Cairo than Seattle is to Miami. - Paris is closer to Tehran than San Diego is to Bangor.

sveme 5y ago
Bit similar to how everyone misunderstands the size of Africa. Here's a nice toy to play around with for a couple of hours: https://thetruesize.com https://thetruesize.com So it makes sense to compare the US to Europe as a continent. Got it. What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US?
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  > What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? My guess would be population density. The US has ~330M people, Europe has ~748M.
  - lovecg 5y ago
    US is more dense though (going by www.worldometers.info). I think these explanations “why we can’t have good things” are too simplistic. Ignore rail and fiber for a second, and look at commuter air travel for example: European market is much more competitive and prices are much lower than for comparable flights in the US.
    - rootusrootus 5y ago
      I think you should double check, that sounds reversed. US and Europe have similar area but Europe has quite a lot more people.
      - perardi 5y ago
        Yeah, Europe is way, way more dense. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA+vs+europe https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA... United States | 36 people/km^2 Europe | 104 people/km^2
        lovecg 5y ago
        Huh. I wonder where this data is from: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-population/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-popula... “The population density in Europe is 34 per Km^2” Edit: duh. They included all of Russia as “Europe”. I stand corrected.
- munificent 5y ago
  > What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? The main one is just not understanding how difficult transit and logistics is here. I've heard British people complain that we should just put high speed passenger rail all across the country like they did while not realizing that their country is literally 1% of the size of the US and more than ten times the population density. The most sadly hilarious one I see fairly often is Europeans planning vacations to the states and intending to drive across the country in a few days so they can see all the big landmarks on the east and west coasts. It takes a lot longer than they realize.
cwillu 5y ago
I find the EU is a better frame of reference for the US than any given country is.
- munificent 5y ago
  Yes. And to put it in further perspective, the entire EU is still only 43% of the area of the US.
boringg 5y ago
Have you ever looked at how big earth is relative to Jupiter to the sun? And how far each one of them truly are from each other? We're terrible at sense of scale :)

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago

https://mapfight.xyz/map/gb/#us.fl https://mapfight.xyz/map/gb/#us.fl

ec109685 5y ago

Britain is 1.7 times larger: https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/florida-usa/united-kingdom#:~:text=Florida%20is%20about%201.7%20times,fewer%20people%20live%20in%20Florida https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/flor...)

rootusrootus 5y ago

As another comparison, the UK is just slightly smaller than Oregon. But has 16 times as many people.