4 ms·
If you don't know: Brazil is bigger than mainland USA. USA is bigger due to Alaska.
by neves 3y ago
If you don't know: Brazil is bigger than mainland USA.
USA is bigger due to Alaska.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- diggan 3y agoCouldn't the US also be bigger because of the 10 states most to the east or whatever? Why specifically Alaska?
- sp332 3y agoBecause it’s way out there and hard to visualize as part of the total area.
- lattalayta 3y agoAnd it's huge! https://www.royalalaskanmovers.com/how-big-is-alaska-comparisons-to-lower-48/ https://www.royalalaskanmovers.com/how-big-is-alaska-compari...
- k_roy 3y agoand the Mercator projection is horrible.
- dmoy 3y agoAlaska is like ~20% of the entire US area. It's the single largest state, which when removed, drops US from >1 million km^2 bigger than Brazil to 500k km^2 smaller than Brazil.
- jonathankoren 3y agoEven Americans don't realize just how freakin' huge Alaska is. https://www.alaska.org/how-big-is-alaska https://www.alaska.org/how-big-is-alaska
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y agoIn addition to other reasons, Alaska was accepted as a state either last or second-last -- I remember in the same year as Hawaii but I don't know if one was officially accepted before the other. I suspect that history would cause people in older generations to think of Alaska when there's a state to arbitrarily drop from some calculation and younger generations would mimic that tendency.
- doakes 3y agoSecond to last: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of_admission_to_the_Union#List_of_U.S._states https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_date_of...
- HWR_14 3y agoAlaska has been part of the US since just after the Civil War. It wasn't a state, but it was a recognized part of the US.
- borbulon 3y agoBecause it's the largest state by far, so it's easier to do the math on. The next 3 biggest states put together don't add up to the size of Alaska. Alaska's land dedicated to national parks alone is bigger than the entire size of the land in each of the 23 of the 49 remaining states.
- Terr_ 3y agoFor a more hands-on demonstration, I like this little site which lets you move/rotate [0] and superimpose nation boundaries, while adjusting the shape to account for 2D map projections. https://www.thetruesize.com https://www.thetruesize.com [0] Rotation of the last-touched country outline is possible by dragging around the "N" compass in the lower-left.
- SketchySeaBeast 3y agoThat's really fun and helps put the globes distortion into perspective. Thanks!