How big is that country?

[atgcpaul]

Working in the scientific field, I interact with a lot of foreign coworkers.
Invariably I end up wondering how big their country is compared to one of our
states. Just one of my little quirks, I guess. While discussing this with a
Swedish coworker today, I hit geographical gold.

http://www.insidervlv.com/landmass.html


Paul

[Ed62]

Cool find!

Ed

[DUD]

I don't believe Wake Island size, but I haven't been to the mall. Bill

[atgcpaul]

I don't believe Wake Island size, but I haven't been to the mall. Bill

Have you been to Kwajalein? Bigger than Wake, I think. My wife grew up there
and I went in 2000 before her father retired. I don't know if I could do 20 years
on an island that I could walk the perimeter of in a few hours. Pretty cool to
see sunrise and sunset on the same ocean, though.


Paul

[ragswl4]

Interesting website. Either I'm blind or they didn't include Britain (England) on the list.

[Stytooner]

Interesting website. Either I'm blind or they didn't include Britain (England) on the list.

Thats because it's in the United Kingdom.

[LarryG]

Britain = United Kingdom.

Some eye openers on there. Skinny lil' ol' Chile is not quite twice the size of Montana?!? Who knew?

[TheRic]

Thats because it's in the United Kingdom.

Britain = United Kingdom.

Some eye openers on there. Skinny lil' ol' Chile is not quite twice the size of Montana?!? Who knew?

Great Britain, an island to the northwest of Continental Europe
United Kingdom, a sovereign state consisting of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

[LarryG]

United Kingdom, a sovereign state consisting of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Okay, you got me. I used the equals sign loosely, to indicate that on this list, England was included in the UK entry.

Brings up a question, though: does the listing for Ireland mean the political Ireland, or the entire island? Given the name of the list, I'd guess the former.

EDIT: I hunch that the several comparisons to the land mass of the United States will mislead a lot of people -- I know it did me. I was surprised to see Brazil and China both listed as smaller than the US until I realized that they mean the entire US, Alaska and Hawaii included, rather than just the Lower 48 (aka "Outside" by our Alaskan members).

[gwyneth]

Great Britain, an island to the northwest of Continental Europe

Many geographers use this definition for Great Britain, to add specificity and avoid confusing it with Jersey or other such:

Great Britain, the island consisting of the kingdoms England, Scotland, and Wales.

Celtic activists might rework that slightly:

Great Britain, the island consisting of England and its [fill in appropriate term for political over-domainships] Scotland and Wales.

But thanks, Ric, one of my peeves is newscasters calling the UK Great Britain. Former term is political boundary, latter term is pseudo-geographical.

[TheRic]

Many geographers use this definition for Great Britain, to add specificity and avoid confusing it with Jersey or other such:

Great Britain, the island consisting of the kingdoms England, Scotland, and Wales.

Celtic activists might rework that slightly:

Great Britain, the island consisting of England and its [fill in appropriate term for political over-domainships] Scotland and Wales.

But thanks, Ric, one of my peeves is newscasters calling the UK Great Britain. Former term is political boundary, latter term is pseudo-geographical.

I have seen people think that UK, Great Britain, England, British Empire, is all the same. The way I have heard some people talk about England they must think it's the capital of Great Britain.

[HarmsWay]

Well I've learned something unexpected here again today. I had always thought it was much simpler than that. I thought England==Britain==Great Britain and the United Kingdom == England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland. The latter is true but the former is way out.

Living in the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", I can see why the Scots and Welsh are unhappy.

Bob

[LCHIEN]

That list is great but most people don't have any idea how big some of those states listed as comparisons, are.

Also US-mainland vs. US incl Alaska, most people think of the US landmass being the lower 48, Alaska adds a large percentage.

Finally, the world Mercator projection maps in common use are very northern hemisphere leaning, makes most northern hemisphere land masses look quite big in contrast to those in the southern hemisphere.

[tung tied]

The list was obviously adapted from the CIA World Factbook.

[gsmittle]

... England==Britain==Great Britain and the United Kingdom == England, Wales, Scotland, N. Ireland...
Bob

Please forgive a stupid question from the non-math guy: what does the == mean?

g.