World Geography Tidbits (statistics, rich, population)

[MarisaMay]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

I would love to say this isn't true, but it is. I once worked with a girl from Chile. It was in January and she had mentioned to the group of us how she was missing her summer because she left during the Chilean winter the previous September. Everyone at that lunch table was hopelessly bewildered and told her that it is now winter and if she had gone home, the weather may be worse (San Diegans have a way of thinking that the weather here is the only acceptable weather anywhere). Her and I spent 15 minutes explaining to them how the earth works.

Yes, what amazes us is that almost every child here knows about the seasons being different in the northern hemisphere, often from the age of five or so. Partly as it is explained to them why it is is snowing at Christmas where Santa lives. And everyone knows people going to the northern hemisphere to ski in our summer.

However I have never come across anyone in Europe who did not understand the seasons. It is a bit of a shame that so many Americans do not seem to know much about the outside world.

[cebuan]

Three cities that are very near exactly the same latitude (30th parallel): New Orleans, Cairo Egypt, and Lhasa Tibet.

[cebuan]

Civilization evolved with nearly all the human population north of the equator, where the sun appears to move across the sky from left to right, or a clockwise rotation of one's shadow.. As the day passes, one instinctively accounts for the predictable changing of the position of the sun in order to remain oriented.

In my personal experience, I lost my ability to be aware of compass direction, after spending several months south of the equator, where the sun moves across the sky from right to left, and shadows rotate anti-clockwise. I had to consciously defeat the sun's movement as the day progressed, and never got the natural sense back again.

[grega94]

Originally Posted by cebuan

I can't make "corrections" without offering alternative definitions, which would just introduce other "wrong facts". I'm not going to go through the OP point by point and itemize every element by which an argment could be made.

For example, to say something is the largest city begs a definition of "city" that can be generally agreed upon..

Is the "poorest country" the one with the lowest per capita wealth, or lowest total wealth? How can the capital of that country be its poorest city?

Is Australia the largest island or the smallest continent? Which would be a "fact"?

Here's a classic example. Arabia is generally recognized as the world's largest peninsula. But the isthmus from Gdansk to Odessa is narrower than from Suez to Kuwait, and connects a larger land mass to the continent. So Western Europe is a larger peninsula than Arabia, attached by a narrower isthmus giving it a more classical peninsular form. How, exactly, do you define Peninsula, such that there would be no disagreement on what is included?

A peninsula (Latin: paeninsula from paene "almost” and insula "island") is a piece of land surrounded by water on the majority of its border, while being connected to a mainland from which it extends.

Mainland is a contiguous landmass that is larger and often politically, economically and/or demographically more significant than politically associated remote territories, such as exclaves or oceanic islands situated outside the continental shelf.

So the reason why Europe is not considered a peninsula is because it is a mainland on it's own and thus can't be a peninsula, however I think a more scientific/mathematical approach should be taken, and that would be a certain proportion has to be attained. For instance technically North and South America are peninsulas, however considering their near equal size it's a bit ridiculous to consider one to be the peninsula of the other.

Americas: 42,549,000 km2 (100%)
North America: 24,490,000 km2 (57.6%)
South America: 17,840,000 km2 (41.9%)

Afro-Eurasia: 84,980,532 km2 (100%)
Eurasia: 55,000,000 km2 (64.7%)
Asia: 43,820,000 km2 (51.6%)
Africa: 30,370,000 km2 (35.7%)
Europe: 10,180,000 km2 (12.0%)
EU: 4,475,757 km2 (5.3%)

Eurasia: 55,000,000 km2 (100%)
Asia: 43,820,000 km2 (79.7%)
Europe: 10,180,000 km2 (18.5%)
EU: 4,475,757 km2 (8.1%)

Asia: 43,820,000 km2 (100%)
Indian Subcontinent: 4,400,000 km2 (10.0%)
Arabian Peninsula: 3,200,000 km2 (7.3%)


Europe: 10,180,000 km2 (100%)
Fennoscandia: 1,500,000 km2 (14.7%)
Scandinavian Peninsula: 800,000 km2 (7.9%)
Iberian Peninsula: 582,000 km2 (5.7%)

North America: 24,490,000 km2 (100%)
Alaska: 1,477,953 km2 (6.0%)

So looking at some of the largest peninsulas it seems like most take up less than 8% of the total land area, so places such as Africa which contains 35.7% of Afro-Eurasia is a bit too big to be considered a peninsula, it is in effect it's own distinct mainland, And Europe as a whole is 18.5% of Eurasia, so Europe is also a bit too big, but once you start shaving off some of eastern Europe/Russia things get interesting. The EU as a whole is 8.1% of Eurasia Which is just a bit bigger proportionally than some of the largest peninsulas, now off course if you get rid of Scandinavia and the Baltic states and other islands I think that could easily fall below 8% and on that basis I think the main European land would be less then 8%, actually lets calculate this right now.

France: 552,000 km2
Spain: 506,000 km2
Germany: 357,000 km2
Poland: 313,000 km2
Italy: 301,000 km2
Romania: 238,000 km2
Greece: 132,000 km2
Bulgaria: 111,000 km2
Hungary: 93,000 km2
Portugal: 92,000 km2
Austria: 84,000 km2
Cezchia: 79,000 km2
Serbia: 77,000 km2
Croatia: 57,000 km2
Bosnia: 51,000 km2
Slovakia: 49,000 km2
Denmark: 43,000 km2
Netherlands: 42,000 km2
Switzerland: 41,000 km2
Moldova: 34,000 km2
Belgium: 31,000 km2
Albania: 29,000 km2
Macedonia: 26,000 km2
Slovenia: 20,000 km2
Montenegro: 14,000 km2
Kosovo: 11,000 km2
Luxemburg: 3,000 km2
Total: 3,386,000 km2 (6.2%)

*Ukraine: 577,000 km2
*Belarus: 208,000 km2
*Lithuania: 65,000 km2
*Latvia: 65,000 km2
*Estonia: 45,000 km2
*Total: 4,346,000 km2 (7.9%)

So yes the European Peninsula should definitely be an official peninsula, whether you define it as this,

https://geopoliticalfutures.com/wp-c...russia-4x3.jpg
or this.

http://theharrisonstudio.net/wp-cont...PE_part_II.jpg

[Kobber]

Originally Posted by MarisaMay

A geography fact for Americans; the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. So many people we met on our recent trip found that surprising that I can only assume not much geography is taught. Someone even said they thought that was cute.

As a follow up to that, even though the seasons are reversed the months are not. A couple of people seemed to think that it would be September here when it is May over your way. Oh dear!

I've had this exact this same experience! An otherwise seemingly intelligent American woman we met in July in Europe was totally confused when we told her we always take our main vacation during Australia's winter, and asked us "so if it's April in the States, is it September or something over there?"

Originally Posted by Gentoo

I would love to say this isn't true, but it is. I once worked with a girl from Chile. It was in January and she had mentioned to the group of us how she was missing her summer because she left during the Chilean winter the previous September. Everyone at that lunch table was hopelessly bewildered and told her that it is now winter and if she had gone home, the weather may be worse (San Diegans have a way of thinking that the weather here is the only acceptable weather anywhere). Her and I spent 15 minutes explaining to them how the earth works.

Sigh.

Originally Posted by MarisaMay

Yes, what amazes us is that almost every child here knows about the seasons being different in the northern hemisphere, often from the age of five or so. Partly as it is explained to them why it is is snowing at Christmas where Santa lives. And everyone knows people going to the northern hemisphere to ski in our summer.

However I have never come across anyone in Europe who did not understand the seasons. It is a bit of a shame that so many Americans do not seem to know much about the outside world.

I agree Marisa. I have countless stories of Americans asking questions they should know the answer to. One example that comes to mind is the guy who asked us (in all seriousness) how long it had taken to drive from Australia to the US.



Having said that, it adds to the fun of our vacations!

[Milky Way Resident]

Originally Posted by Kobber

I agree Marisa. I have countless stories of Americans asking questions they should know the answer to. One example that comes to mind is the guy who asked us (in all seriousness) how long it had taken to drive from Australia to the US.

Having said that, it adds to the fun of our vacations!

Maybe he thought you came from Australia, Mississippi.

[slowlane3]

Originally Posted by Milky Way Resident

Kinshasa and Brazzaville are the only two capital cities that sit opposite one another, separated by the Congo river.

Yes- and in second place for closeness, would be the 2 capitals Vienna Austria, and Bratislava Slovakia......... Also, Jerusalem Israel, and Amman Jordan.

[slowlane3]

The Pacific end of the Panama Canal, is actually EAST of the Atlantic end of the Canal.

The most northerly tip of Ireland (Donegal county) is NOT in the U.K. "Northern Ireland" but is instead part of the Irish Republic.

Oddly, the highest mountain in all of the lower 48 United States, Mount Whitney - California, is only 109 miles (180 km) from the very lowest point in the United States (Death Valley - California, which is below sea level).

The former Soviet Union stretched across 11 time zones - but most of the population lived in the westernmost 1 or 2 zones.

Airline services are so poor throughout Africa, that it takes 12 hours, and costs USD $1200 to travel, making transfers, a short 1100 miles (1800 km) between the great metropolises of Lagos and Kinshasha.

[Milky Way Resident]

Originally Posted by slowlane3

Yes- and in second place for closeness, would be the 2 capitals Vienna Austria, and Bratislava Slovakia......... Also, Jerusalem Israel, and Amman Jordan.

If/when the Palestinians get their own state we will have a new contender. Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.

[victus]

Originally Posted by slowlane3

Yes- and in second place for closeness, would be the 2 capitals Vienna Austria, and Bratislava Slovakia......... Also, Jerusalem Israel, and Amman Jordan.

Also Buenos Aires and Montevideo.