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I didn't read the article but the first thing that jumped into my head is why are they comparing the size of a continent to sizes of countries?
by larrydag 11y ago
I didn't read the article but the first thing that jumped into my head is why are they comparing the size of a continent to sizes of countries?
- nmeofthestate 11y agoBecause the countries, being smaller, can be arranged to fit into Africa.
- JDDunn9 11y agoIn other news, look how many continents can fit in the ocean. See how many moons can fit in the earth. Lots of smaller things can fit in larger things!
- mfoy_ 11y agoWhile I appreciate the tongue in cheek nature of your comment, keep in mind the vast majority of people don't realize how bonkers the Mercator projection makes the world out to be.
- emodendroket 11y agoThe map doesn't make the oceans look smaller than the continents.
- anc84 11y ago5673 million football fields fit into Africa while just 398 million fit into Greenland. For comparison: The US can take 1800 million football fields.
- cicero 11y agoWhat fits into Mother Russia. https://youtu.be/N3lz2GFfkEg https://youtu.be/N3lz2GFfkEg
- arethuza 11y agoPeople seem to compare the US with Europe all the time. Edit: My favourite being an, apparently serious, assertion by an HN user than Europe would fit in Texas... :-)
- jrs99 11y agoi like the africa comparisons here: http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-post/how-big-texas-compared-other-land-masses http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-post/how-big-texas-compare... the last line might help people understand why people compare these things: "If you’re the right kind of nerd, you can probably do this forever and not get bored"
- arethuza 11y agoI do these kind of comparisons all the time myself (particularly distances) - I just tend to react that assertions that Europe is "small" which I think are based on the distribution of "interesting" bits within Europe and the US. In Europe a lot of the "interesting" bits cluster together in the middle with a lot of empty bits towards the edges - the US has the opposite layout with major attractions often being on the coasts and the middle getting relatively little attention. [NB Note the sweeping generalisations - I know fine well that there is a lot of cool stuff in the "middle" of the USA as well as lots of fascinating stuff round the periphery of Europe - I'm from Scotland!]
- blumkvist 11y agoCompletely unrelated; My brother's father-in-law, while lecturing me how we younglings don't know nothing and have terrible education, insisted that Iran is in Africa and full of arabs.
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoIts closer to Alaska (half a million square miles)
- baldfat 11y agoBecause most people have no idea that Africa is as large as it is due to the way we represent our planet's maps and globes. Seriously have this conversation several times a year. People really think Greenland is almost as large as Africa. I than state that we can fit these countries into the area of Africa and people are shocked. BTW US is the third largest geographical country in the world.
- megablast 11y agoWhy not?
- jrs99 11y agowhat they're doing is making up a new hypothetical continent consisting of the US, China, Europe, India, Japan and comparing that to Africa. I think it works to show how big Africa is. But yes, if you compare countries, you can take comparisons further, and it would be more practical.