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The True Size of Africa (2015)

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Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#41

Post by jedberg »

stoolpigeon wrote: post #15

One of the strangest feelings I've had is flying from Amsterdam to Johannesburg. It's a super long trip and so mentally I was expecting jet lag. But there was no time change. The season flipped but the time of day was right in sync with everyone back home in Budapest.

I traveled from San Francisco to Johannesburg. It was two flights, one to Berlin and then on to Johannesburg.

The first flight gave us the usual jet lag going to Europe. The problem was our flight from Berlin to Johannesburg left in Berlin’s evening. It’s an 11 hour flight so the idea is that you sleep on the plane and arrive in the morning after 8 hours of sleep.

But that only works if your body is already in GMT+1!

So while everyone else slept the whole way, we were wide awake! I took pictures of the navigation display the moment we crossed the equator.

But man was I messed up when I arrived. 11 hours on a plane and no time change is just so strange.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#42

Post by ddxxdd »

School-Cotton wrote: post #31
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of Americans think that Africa is a country.

What makes you think so? I’m American and have never encountered that belief.

There's the fact that not many Americans can name more than 3 countries in Africa.

And the ratio of people mentioning "Africa" rather than a particular nation in Africa is much high than the ratio of other continents being mentioned rather than their constituent countries.

Also, "African American" is a common term; "European Americans" not so much.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#43

Post by bombcar »

coyotespike wrote: post #26
dominicjj wrote: post #9

I remember flying to Munich once from Cape Town and a German colleague guessed the flight was three to four hours. I said no, it was over eleven hours and he was shocked. I laughed and told him to check out a globe sometime - not a map - so he could trace for himself how massive Africa really is. The surface area of the moon is only 20% larger.

whoa, now there's a statistic for you!

Asia is 17.21 million mi² - and the moon is 14.6 million mi².

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#44

Post by bombcar »

witherk wrote: post #16
jlos wrote: post #13

Why isn't Canada or Russia, the two largest countries by land mass, included?

Probably because it's trying to convince you that Africa is really huge, so including other really big countries would be counterproductive. I guess you could argue that Canada and Russia both have a lot of tundra that no one wants to live on so that land doesn't count or something.

I've not drawn up the maps, but it appears that North America is just a bit larger than the USA, Canada, and Mexico combined. That's large!

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#45

Post by bombcar »

jobigoud wrote: post #28
raldi wrote: post #8

It says "United States with Alaska & Hawaii" but I don't see them anywhere.

It's not on the map but it's included in the figure they used to add all these countries together to compare with the size of Africa.

I guess it fits in all the cracks.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#47

Post by ithkuil »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #25
jlos wrote: post #13

Why isn't Canada or Russia, the two largest countries by land mass, included?

They also excluded Alaska from the United States, which would increase the size by >20%. I also understand why they didn't; the purpose isn't a rigorous measure of country size or anything like that.

>17%

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#48

Post by Retric »

jahnu wrote: post #40
init wrote: post #35

Africa has 54 countries, thousands of languages and 1.2 billion people. As an African, whenever I see this map I'm more astonished by how densely populated Europe and India are, how big and populated China is and how homogeneous the US is compared to its size.

Population density of Europe is 34/km2 Africa is 45/km2 https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-popula... ). https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-popula... .

That really depends on where you draw the borders on Europe.

The population density of the EU is 105 people per km2. Include some or all of Russia and things look rather different. Similarly, Finland is 8% of the EU’s land area but only has 16.3 people per km2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_U...

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#49

Post by JackFr »

init wrote: post #35

Africa has 54 countries, thousands of languages and 1.2 billion people. As an African, whenever I see this map I'm more astonished by how densely populated Europe and India are, how big and populated China is and how homogeneous the US is compared to its size.

When you say the US is homogenous for it’s size, are you referring to the physical geography or the demographic make up of the population, or something else entirely?

(I think I would disagree, but good faith requires I actually try to understand what you meant before I take issue with it.)

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