7 ms·

Some common geographic mental misplacements

165 points by ohjeez 4y ago

NovemberWhiskey 4y ago
A significant number of my US friends and colleagues were surprised about how far apart things in Asia were. They were quite surprised to learn that Singapore is about as far from Tokyo as London is from New York; for example.
sfvisser 4y ago
Very nicely presented! Worked great on mobile. A fun fact I came across recently is that the northernmost tip of Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to southernmost tip of Brazil. Incredibly counterintuitive,
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  > Very nicely presented! Yes, almost all pages that hijack scrolling are terrible, but this worked well.
- mkl 4y ago
  > A fun fact I came across recently is that the northernmost tip of Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to southernmost tip of Brazil. Only just! https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTM5OTEwNjA.NjU1NzU0MQ*MjA3OTg2MjE(NDA1NTQ1Nw~!BR*NDM0OTE0Mw.MTcxOTQ3NTc)Mw https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTM5OTEwNjA.NjU1NzU...
spacedcowboy 4y ago
Yeah, as a Brit in the USA, I've pointed out on a couple of times to friends/colleagues that literally everywhere in the UK is north of literally everywhere in the contiguous 48 states - Alaska is a cheat-code! This usually comes up when the conversation turns to why no-one in Europe (mainly the UK, since they know I'm a Brit) has air-conditioning... That's right; we don't have it because it's bloody cold there, a lot of the time. In fact our Summers are only temperate because of the Gulf Stream (Atlantic Conveyor, if you prefer). If that "turns off", the UK (and a fair amount of Europe) is in dire straits.
- Mordisquitos 4y ago
  I wouldn't say that the reason people in the UK haven't got air conditioning is because it's "bloody cold". Rather, it's because it's simply never bloody hot. I would even argue that the UK in general is less cold than most of the US, for example the North East and Midwest. However, I would go even further. The reason why no-one in Europe (for a loose definition of "no-one") has air conditioning is not so much the climate, but more heavily influenced by historical, cultural, and architectural reasons. I'll bet that most current American homes were built after air conditioning was invented, their usual construction materials mean they are rarely well insulated, and single family homes are generally fully exposed to the Sun. Compare that for instance with Spain, which one may assume would be hot enough to need air conditioning, with a climate comparable to that of California. Some homes do have it of course, but it is never assumed by default. Firstly, most of the population lives in flats, which mean their homes are less exposed to the Sun (except attics), and construction materials are generally sturdier and better insulators by default. Secondly, old homes in villages have been there long before air conditioning was a glint in the ice cream man's eye, and thus have been designed over time to be better protected from the heat. Modern houses, even if they may be designed to accomodate potential air conditioning, are still more or less influenced by these ideas to an extent. On the cultural aspect, as air conditioning has never been a given, people have learnt to adapt their lifestyles and expectations to living with the heat, and don't instinctively feel the need to have air conditioning blasting all the time. Of course people do like it and appreciate it when available, but it simply doesn't have the cultural expectation that it has in the US.
  - JimDabell 4y ago
    > I wouldn't say that the reason people in the UK haven't got air conditioning is because it's "bloody cold". Rather, it's because it's simply never bloody hot. That used to be the case, but it went over 40°C this summer and four out of the top five hottest days on record happened in the last three years. A lot of the people I know in the UK wished their had air con this year.
    - denton-scratch 4y ago
balderdash 4y ago
I flew Houston>Bogota>New York, and my head nearly exploded when I realized the the flights are basically the same distance..which is when I had spend some time with map and realize how far east South America is
i_like_apis 4y ago
Regarding the geographic line: Ecuador in South America and Equatorial Guinea in Africa. Would be a decent jeopardy clue
mcenedella 4y ago
Some US mental misplacements: Buffalo is East of Miami Cheyenne is South of Cleveland DC is North of San Francisco Atlanta is West of Detroit
- gcanyon 4y ago
  And Reno is West of Los Angeles.
astatine 4y ago
Till I visited Dakar in Senegal, I did not realize that it lies further West than UK and Ireland. Wordle[0] has been a great game to set right some of these notions. [0] https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/ https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/
hax0ron3 4y ago
I find it kind of funny that the article says that Europe is "Not really a physical continent, but rather a cultural geographic construct" and then immediately goes on to demonstrate this by showing a map of Europe that includes Ukraine but excludes Russia - a choice that I think is likely to have been influenced by politics, since I am much more used to seeing Europe defined as extending east to the Ural mountains and there is no geographic reason to draw the border of Europe along the Ukraine-Russia border.
- mb7733 4y ago
  Well, yeah, isn't that exactly what the article meant?
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  > showing a map of Europe that includes Ukraine but excludes Russia - a choice that I think is likely to have been influenced by politics, since I am much more used to seeing Europe defined as extending east to the Ural mountains and there is no geographic reason to draw the border of Europe along the Ukraine-Russia border. The politics might be milder than you're thinking; some people find it awkward for a country to be partly in one continent and partly in another. Russia obviously can't be included in a map of Europe - only the European part of Russia would make sense. (As, indeed, you advocate.) If you're making your map by including countries, as opposed to regions, you'll have no choice but to leave Russia out. A similar issue of confusing continental boundaries, political boundaries, and ethnic boundaries can be seen in the various claims that e.g. Cleopatra was black. The logic goes that Africa is populated by blacks, Egypt is in Africa, and Cleopatra was the queen of Egypt. (You see the same thing about various Berbers who were active in the Roman Empire.) It never bothers these people that the words "Africa" and "Africa" in those three correct claims do not mean the same thing, or that Cleopatra was not an Egyptian. She was notable in her day for being the first (and last) member of her dynasty who was able to speak the Egyptian language.
  - denton-scratch 4y ago
    Cleopatra was a Greek, wasn't she?
CSMastermind 4y ago
Credit for the beautiful presentation, the transitions and the illustrations were wonderfully done. As someone who works with lots of Latin American engineers, I can attest that the time zones threw me off at first.
- lupire 4y ago
  On the phone it's exhausting to scroll for every sentence.
  - geoduck14 4y ago
    >On the phone it's exhausting to scroll for every sentence. I'm on my phone, too. I think the graphics were intended for a desktop. My approach: I savor what is in front of me. The author's humor. The appearance of color or dotted lines. This is informational - but it is also art. I appreciate the art.
MiguelX413 4y ago
Lmao, this is one of those “Russia has been downgraded to Asian” maps
- lionkor 4y ago
  very odd, indeed. I know its awkward to draw part of a country only, but the west part of russia belongs in europe - culturally. source: lived there a few months
jmharvey 4y ago
Another common geographic mental misplacement is the degree to which the east coast of the United States runs northeast/southwest. The closest US state to Africa is Maine.
- antognini 4y ago
  Same with the Californian coast, but going northwest/southeast. A reliable way to blow most Californians' minds is to point out that Reno, Nevada is further west than Los Angeles.
- bombcar 4y ago
  And the US leans southeast, also, all of Florida is south of California.
- silvestrov 4y ago
  United states is a wide bowl, not a rectangle.
marcodiego 4y ago
There is a very common size misconception mostly caused because of map projections used: Brazil is larger than continental US.
- silvestrov 4y ago
  And especially size of Greenland versus Africa. People think Greenland is BIG whereas it is really small compared to Africa. Look at https://mortenjonassen.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/greenland-on-africa.jpg https://mortenjonassen.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/greenla... from https://mortenjonassen.dk/maps/greenland-vs-africa-size-comparison https://mortenjonassen.dk/maps/greenland-vs-africa-size-comp...
elchief 4y ago
Reno is west of Los Angeles Vancouver is in the Eastern half of British Columbia Point Peelee Ontario is south of parts of Northen California
- abliefern 4y ago
  That last one broke my brain, thanks
petesergeant 4y ago
British people often miss how far to the west most of Scotland is. Edinburgh is in line with Cardiff, for example. Also, if you're not from "The North" of England, it can be pretty surprising how much further north England actually extends: going from London, Sheffield marks only a half-way point to the top of England.
ginnungagap 4y ago
I'm european and I've always been surprised at how far east Vienna is compared to where I imagine it to be. I mentioned this to many people and quite a few very surprised that Vienna is considerably further east than Prague (if you go straight down from Vienna you'll reach Zagreb)
- pflenker 4y ago
  People routinely place Vienna to the south of Munich, when in reality it is almost exactly due east. I think this is because the generally somewhat valid heuristic - Austria lies to the south of Germany - does not apply to the special case of these two well known cities in Germany and Austria.
- paganel 4y ago
  I jokingly refer to people from Vienna as Slavs who happen to speak German. As an Eastern European myself Vienna is one of the few “Western” cities where I still feel relatively at home/familiar with, was one of the few cities to which I thought about emigrating when that was still on the menu for me. Their tram network is one of the best in Europe, I can’t see myself living in a city without a decent tram network.
- elcapitan 4y ago
  It's more intuitive when you remember that Austria-Hungary was an empire spanning much of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and that Vienna was more central to it than it is today to Austria, but I make that mistake of placing it to much in the West regularly too.
  - zokier 4y ago
    More historical cue is that the western parts of modern-day Austria, most notably Salzburg and Tyrol, were not part of the historical (arch) duchy of Austria. With that in mind the location of Vienna is bit easier to picture.
- lordgrenville 4y ago
  "Östlich von Wien fängt der Orient an"
bumbledraven 4y ago
> The story is based on an excerpt from a publication by Burton Nelson, Robert Aron, and Mark Francek of Central Michigan University: Clarification of Selected Misconceptions in Physical Geography. Link to that paper: https://people.wou.edu/~girodm/middle/Nelson.pdf https://people.wou.edu/~girodm/middle/Nelson.pdf
rolisz 4y ago
This scrollytelling tool looks really nice, but pricing send to be hidden behind a contact us form. Does anyone have any suggestions for some alternatives? Ideally open source, but reasonably cheap SaaS alternatives are good too.
Sharlin 4y ago
Somewhat related: a direct flight from, say, Stockholm to Seattle is shorter than from Stockholm to Miami, a fact belied by most 2D projections that lie both about relative distances and what "straight lines" in fact look like.
anonymoh 4y ago
In Singapore a lot of people think Switzerland and Sweden are the same country, like US and America are synonyms. In part it's because Europe is simply too far away, but another reason is that the names sound similar when pronounced with Chinese patterns of speech: Swiss-len and Swidd-en.
bittumenEntity 4y ago
> some common geographic mental misplacement for continental United States residents
zokier 4y ago
For Africa one thing that enforces the mental misplacement is Sahara desert; it looks like it should sit on the equator, being neat east-west aligned zone spanning the continent. But in reality it's few thousand kms north of equator.
richardjam73 4y ago
In the mental model in my head, Japan is off the coast of China with Taiwan between them and the Philippines is east of Japan.
- puffoflogic 4y ago
  To me Korea goes where Hainan island (and the adjacent peninsula) actually is; Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia move to Malaysia to make room.
egman_ekki 4y ago
> While Africa does straddle the equator, many are surprised to learn how far north it extends. > This northiness is apparent when seen in the context of the Equator. I like the presentation, but this bit feels somewhat misleading. The northernmost tip of Africa is almost the same distance from the equator as the southernmost tip. (assuming 1 deg of lat ~= 111km, then the difference is just 297km: 3868km to the south and 4160km to the north, based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Africa)
ksec 4y ago
Forgive me if this is a silly question. I thought equator was the middle between the North Pole and the South Pole. But Earth is tilted 2x degree towards the Sun. If we measure the closet point towards the Sun and Draw a line ( Is there a name for this already ? ) then the weather makes a little more sense between Europe and US? ( Other than the Gulf Stream ) i.e Shouldn't we measure it from the perspective of the Sun rather than the North and South Pole?
- aw1621107 4y ago
  Wouldn't the equator then move relative to the surface of the Earth over the course of a year as the Earth circles the Sun? That would make it much less useful as a reference for maps or other things which rely on a static reference. Also, how would it make more sense from a weather perspective?
  - lupire 4y ago
    Why would it move any more than all the other tiny astronomically irregularities we commonly ignore outside of detailed science and annual corrections?
    - aw1621107 4y ago
      I think it might have been a misinterpretation on my part - I took the original comment to mean the equator would be at the latitude corresponding to the closest point to the sun, which doesn't really make sense now that I look back at it. My apologies for the mistake.
- lupire 4y ago
  It's really hard to find that axis. Finding magnetic north (a good approximation for rotational north) requires a piece of magnetic metal dangling from a piece of string. A tiny piece of each suffices. Finding orbital (revolutionary) north requires some sort of astronomical measuring equipment like a sundial, and waiting for the earth to move enough so you can compute extrapolations to a reasonable degree of accuracy.
- 4y ago
Rant423 4y ago
Very specific to Italy, but: Sardinia is way more south than most people think. All of Sardinia is below Rome.

165 points by ohjeez 4y ago

A significant number of my US friends and colleagues were surprised about how far apart things in Asia were. They were quite surprised to learn that Singapore is about as far from Tokyo as London is from New York; for example.

sfvisser 4y ago

Very nicely presented! Worked great on mobile. A fun fact I came across recently is that the northernmost tip of Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to southernmost tip of Brazil. Incredibly counterintuitive,

thaumasiotes 4y ago
> Very nicely presented! Yes, almost all pages that hijack scrolling are terrible, but this worked well.
mkl 4y ago
> A fun fact I came across recently is that the northernmost tip of Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to southernmost tip of Brazil. Only just! https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTM5OTEwNjA.NjU1NzU0MQ*MjA3OTg2MjE(NDA1NTQ1Nw~!BR*NDM0OTE0Mw.MTcxOTQ3NTc)Mw https://www.thetruesize.com/#?borders=1~!MTM5OTEwNjA.NjU1NzU...

spacedcowboy 4y ago

Yeah, as a Brit in the USA, I've pointed out on a couple of times to friends/colleagues that literally everywhere in the UK is north of literally everywhere in the contiguous 48 states - Alaska is a cheat-code! This usually comes up when the conversation turns to why no-one in Europe (mainly the UK, since they know I'm a Brit) has air-conditioning... That's right; we don't have it because it's bloody cold there, a lot of the time. In fact our Summers are only temperate because of the Gulf Stream (Atlantic Conveyor, if you prefer). If that "turns off", the UK (and a fair amount of Europe) is in dire straits.

Mordisquitos 4y ago
I wouldn't say that the reason people in the UK haven't got air conditioning is because it's "bloody cold". Rather, it's because it's simply never bloody hot. I would even argue that the UK in general is less cold than most of the US, for example the North East and Midwest. However, I would go even further. The reason why no-one in Europe (for a loose definition of "no-one") has air conditioning is not so much the climate, but more heavily influenced by historical, cultural, and architectural reasons. I'll bet that most current American homes were built after air conditioning was invented, their usual construction materials mean they are rarely well insulated, and single family homes are generally fully exposed to the Sun. Compare that for instance with Spain, which one may assume would be hot enough to need air conditioning, with a climate comparable to that of California. Some homes do have it of course, but it is never assumed by default. Firstly, most of the population lives in flats, which mean their homes are less exposed to the Sun (except attics), and construction materials are generally sturdier and better insulators by default. Secondly, old homes in villages have been there long before air conditioning was a glint in the ice cream man's eye, and thus have been designed over time to be better protected from the heat. Modern houses, even if they may be designed to accomodate potential air conditioning, are still more or less influenced by these ideas to an extent. On the cultural aspect, as air conditioning has never been a given, people have learnt to adapt their lifestyles and expectations to living with the heat, and don't instinctively feel the need to have air conditioning blasting all the time. Of course people do like it and appreciate it when available, but it simply doesn't have the cultural expectation that it has in the US.
- JimDabell 4y ago
  > I wouldn't say that the reason people in the UK haven't got air conditioning is because it's "bloody cold". Rather, it's because it's simply never bloody hot. That used to be the case, but it went over 40°C this summer and four out of the top five hottest days on record happened in the last three years. A lot of the people I know in the UK wished their had air con this year.
  - denton-scratch 4y ago

balderdash 4y ago

I flew Houston>Bogota>New York, and my head nearly exploded when I realized the the flights are basically the same distance..which is when I had spend some time with map and realize how far east South America is

i_like_apis 4y ago

Regarding the geographic line: Ecuador in South America and Equatorial Guinea in Africa. Would be a decent jeopardy clue

mcenedella 4y ago

Some US mental misplacements: Buffalo is East of Miami Cheyenne is South of Cleveland DC is North of San Francisco Atlanta is West of Detroit

gcanyon 4y ago
And Reno is West of Los Angeles.

astatine 4y ago

Till I visited Dakar in Senegal, I did not realize that it lies further West than UK and Ireland. Wordle[0] has been a great game to set right some of these notions. [0] https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/ https://worldle.teuteuf.fr/

hax0ron3 4y ago

I find it kind of funny that the article says that Europe is "Not really a physical continent, but rather a cultural geographic construct" and then immediately goes on to demonstrate this by showing a map of Europe that includes Ukraine but excludes Russia - a choice that I think is likely to have been influenced by politics, since I am much more used to seeing Europe defined as extending east to the Ural mountains and there is no geographic reason to draw the border of Europe along the Ukraine-Russia border.

mb7733 4y ago
Well, yeah, isn't that exactly what the article meant?
thaumasiotes 4y ago
> showing a map of Europe that includes Ukraine but excludes Russia - a choice that I think is likely to have been influenced by politics, since I am much more used to seeing Europe defined as extending east to the Ural mountains and there is no geographic reason to draw the border of Europe along the Ukraine-Russia border. The politics might be milder than you're thinking; some people find it awkward for a country to be partly in one continent and partly in another. Russia obviously can't be included in a map of Europe - only the European part of Russia would make sense. (As, indeed, you advocate.) If you're making your map by including countries, as opposed to regions, you'll have no choice but to leave Russia out. A similar issue of confusing continental boundaries, political boundaries, and ethnic boundaries can be seen in the various claims that e.g. Cleopatra was black. The logic goes that Africa is populated by blacks, Egypt is in Africa, and Cleopatra was the queen of Egypt. (You see the same thing about various Berbers who were active in the Roman Empire.) It never bothers these people that the words "Africa" and "Africa" in those three correct claims do not mean the same thing, or that Cleopatra was not an Egyptian. She was notable in her day for being the first (and last) member of her dynasty who was able to speak the Egyptian language.
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  Cleopatra was a Greek, wasn't she?

CSMastermind 4y ago

Credit for the beautiful presentation, the transitions and the illustrations were wonderfully done. As someone who works with lots of Latin American engineers, I can attest that the time zones threw me off at first.

lupire 4y ago
On the phone it's exhausting to scroll for every sentence.
- geoduck14 4y ago
  >On the phone it's exhausting to scroll for every sentence. I'm on my phone, too. I think the graphics were intended for a desktop. My approach: I savor what is in front of me. The author's humor. The appearance of color or dotted lines. This is informational - but it is also art. I appreciate the art.

MiguelX413 4y ago

Lmao, this is one of those “Russia has been downgraded to Asian” maps

lionkor 4y ago
very odd, indeed. I know its awkward to draw part of a country only, but the west part of russia belongs in europe - culturally. source: lived there a few months

jmharvey 4y ago

Another common geographic mental misplacement is the degree to which the east coast of the United States runs northeast/southwest. The closest US state to Africa is Maine.

antognini 4y ago
Same with the Californian coast, but going northwest/southeast. A reliable way to blow most Californians' minds is to point out that Reno, Nevada is further west than Los Angeles.
bombcar 4y ago
And the US leans southeast, also, all of Florida is south of California.
silvestrov 4y ago
United states is a wide bowl, not a rectangle.

marcodiego 4y ago

There is a very common size misconception mostly caused because of map projections used: Brazil is larger than continental US.

silvestrov 4y ago
And especially size of Greenland versus Africa. People think Greenland is BIG whereas it is really small compared to Africa. Look at https://mortenjonassen.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/greenland-on-africa.jpg https://mortenjonassen.dk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/greenla... from https://mortenjonassen.dk/maps/greenland-vs-africa-size-comparison https://mortenjonassen.dk/maps/greenland-vs-africa-size-comp...

elchief 4y ago

Reno is west of Los Angeles Vancouver is in the Eastern half of British Columbia Point Peelee Ontario is south of parts of Northen California

abliefern 4y ago
That last one broke my brain, thanks

petesergeant 4y ago

British people often miss how far to the west most of Scotland is. Edinburgh is in line with Cardiff, for example. Also, if you're not from "The North" of England, it can be pretty surprising how much further north England actually extends: going from London, Sheffield marks only a half-way point to the top of England.

ginnungagap 4y ago

I'm european and I've always been surprised at how far east Vienna is compared to where I imagine it to be. I mentioned this to many people and quite a few very surprised that Vienna is considerably further east than Prague (if you go straight down from Vienna you'll reach Zagreb)

pflenker 4y ago
People routinely place Vienna to the south of Munich, when in reality it is almost exactly due east. I think this is because the generally somewhat valid heuristic - Austria lies to the south of Germany - does not apply to the special case of these two well known cities in Germany and Austria.
paganel 4y ago
I jokingly refer to people from Vienna as Slavs who happen to speak German. As an Eastern European myself Vienna is one of the few “Western” cities where I still feel relatively at home/familiar with, was one of the few cities to which I thought about emigrating when that was still on the menu for me. Their tram network is one of the best in Europe, I can’t see myself living in a city without a decent tram network.
elcapitan 4y ago
It's more intuitive when you remember that Austria-Hungary was an empire spanning much of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, and that Vienna was more central to it than it is today to Austria, but I make that mistake of placing it to much in the West regularly too.
- zokier 4y ago
  More historical cue is that the western parts of modern-day Austria, most notably Salzburg and Tyrol, were not part of the historical (arch) duchy of Austria. With that in mind the location of Vienna is bit easier to picture.
lordgrenville 4y ago
"Östlich von Wien fängt der Orient an"

bumbledraven 4y ago

> The story is based on an excerpt from a publication by Burton Nelson, Robert Aron, and Mark Francek of Central Michigan University: Clarification of Selected Misconceptions in Physical Geography. Link to that paper: https://people.wou.edu/~girodm/middle/Nelson.pdf https://people.wou.edu/~girodm/middle/Nelson.pdf

rolisz 4y ago

This scrollytelling tool looks really nice, but pricing send to be hidden behind a contact us form. Does anyone have any suggestions for some alternatives? Ideally open source, but reasonably cheap SaaS alternatives are good too.

Sharlin 4y ago

Somewhat related: a direct flight from, say, Stockholm to Seattle is shorter than from Stockholm to Miami, a fact belied by most 2D projections that lie both about relative distances and what "straight lines" in fact look like.

anonymoh 4y ago

In Singapore a lot of people think Switzerland and Sweden are the same country, like US and America are synonyms. In part it's because Europe is simply too far away, but another reason is that the names sound similar when pronounced with Chinese patterns of speech: Swiss-len and Swidd-en.

bittumenEntity 4y ago

> some common geographic mental misplacement for continental United States residents

zokier 4y ago

For Africa one thing that enforces the mental misplacement is Sahara desert; it looks like it should sit on the equator, being neat east-west aligned zone spanning the continent. But in reality it's few thousand kms north of equator.

richardjam73 4y ago

In the mental model in my head, Japan is off the coast of China with Taiwan between them and the Philippines is east of Japan.

puffoflogic 4y ago
To me Korea goes where Hainan island (and the adjacent peninsula) actually is; Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia move to Malaysia to make room.

egman_ekki 4y ago

> While Africa does straddle the equator, many are surprised to learn how far north it extends. > This northiness is apparent when seen in the context of the Equator. I like the presentation, but this bit feels somewhat misleading. The northernmost tip of Africa is almost the same distance from the equator as the southernmost tip. (assuming 1 deg of lat ~= 111km, then the difference is just 297km: 3868km to the south and 4160km to the north, based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_Africa)

ksec 4y ago

Forgive me if this is a silly question. I thought equator was the middle between the North Pole and the South Pole. But Earth is tilted 2x degree towards the Sun. If we measure the closet point towards the Sun and Draw a line ( Is there a name for this already ? ) then the weather makes a little more sense between Europe and US? ( Other than the Gulf Stream ) i.e Shouldn't we measure it from the perspective of the Sun rather than the North and South Pole?

aw1621107 4y ago
Wouldn't the equator then move relative to the surface of the Earth over the course of a year as the Earth circles the Sun? That would make it much less useful as a reference for maps or other things which rely on a static reference. Also, how would it make more sense from a weather perspective?
- lupire 4y ago
  Why would it move any more than all the other tiny astronomically irregularities we commonly ignore outside of detailed science and annual corrections?
  - aw1621107 4y ago
    I think it might have been a misinterpretation on my part - I took the original comment to mean the equator would be at the latitude corresponding to the closest point to the sun, which doesn't really make sense now that I look back at it. My apologies for the mistake.
lupire 4y ago
It's really hard to find that axis. Finding magnetic north (a good approximation for rotational north) requires a piece of magnetic metal dangling from a piece of string. A tiny piece of each suffices. Finding orbital (revolutionary) north requires some sort of astronomical measuring equipment like a sundial, and waiting for the earth to move enough so you can compute extrapolations to a reasonable degree of accuracy.
4y ago

Rant423 4y ago

Very specific to Italy, but: Sardinia is way more south than most people think. All of Sardinia is below Rome.