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The True Size of Africa (2015)

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Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#51

Post by xpe »

JackFr wrote: post #49
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.)

It seems to me the commenter is referring to the number of languages and countries in a land mass.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#52

Post by layoutIfNeeded »

torstenvl wrote: post #37
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/co...

> there are rumors that a former Vice Presidential candidate thinks Africa is a country Rumors, not facts. One candidate, not "a lot of Americans." Irony is making sweeping generalizations while ostensibly pushing back on generalizations.

A candidate and a president (who’s a Yale and Harvard alumnus):

“ One of the most famous blunders made by former U.S. President George W. Bush was, “Africa is a nation that suffers from terrible disease.” President Bush, like many others, misconstrued the fact that Africa is not a country, but a continent.”

https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/11/23/africa-not-a-co...

But surely, it must be a coincidence! :)

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#53

Post by xpe »

idatum wrote: post #3

Projections can be tricky. Early memory I have in college: I walked into my professor's office and she had a curious looking map on her wall. It had Australia at the center and the US was distorted and upside down. As someone from North America (US) this was a nice lesson in perspective.

Yes, I think more than one Australian professor have a similar map on display. :)

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#54

Post by ohyeshedid »

dragonwriter wrote: post #21

Why is the subtitle “a visual comparison with other continents” here? It’s not in the source, and the source does not compare Africa visually to other continents (except that one of the smaller visualizations conpares it to Europe), but to individual countries.

I share the same read. It's very much an apples to oranges comparison.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#55

Post by dnautics »

JackFr wrote: post #49
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.)

I think america is diverse, and shockingly homogenous given its diversity. For example, chinatown in NYC does not seem particularly different from chinatown in SF.

Yes, the midwest calmer and the south is friendlier, the east is more uptight and the west is more chillaxed, and the cuisine is different in different parts of the country, but these are pretty much details at the edges. Everyone speaks english, the low-end labor speaks spanish, african-americans are discriminated against, etc.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#57

Post by [deleted] »

dleslie wrote: post #33
joe_the_user wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the parent makes a good point that stacking countries insides different continents doesn't give one much of a comparison. The visualization winds-up more "factoid" than fact. Africa is approximately three times the size of Europe, 2/3 the size of Asia, 5/4 the size of North America and so forth. Obviously it's a large place but so is every continent. Edit: This isn't to take away from the point that historically,…

The importance of Africa was historically neglected? I don't think that fits well with the "Race for Africa" and the long history of Mediterranean conflicts involving North Africa. Africa wouldn't still be recovering from the effects of colonialism if it weren't as historically important as it was.

[deleted]

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#58

Post by zokier »

jalgos_eminator wrote: post #30
edem wrote: post #6

If you find this fascinating try the intractive version! https://thetruesize.com/

Wow, this is a great visualization tool because it corrects for the distortions of flat maps. Greenland is always so huge on maps, but really its only a bit bigger than Mexico. For people trying the website out, you can type in the country then drag it around the world and it will change size based on latitude (because of flat map distortion), but you can also left click on the country, then turn it by clicking and h…

> Greenland is always so huge on maps

Not quite always.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-area_map

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#59

Post by samatman »

Retric wrote: post #48
jahnu wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

That has to be including all of Russia as part of "Eastern Europe" (indeed, if you drill down into the data, that's what's happening).

When we're talking about geography, you can't include anything east of the Urals in the European subcontinent.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#60

Post by t0mas88 »

dnautics wrote: post #55
JackFr wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

I think america is diverse, and shockingly homogenous given its diversity. For example, chinatown in NYC does not seem particularly different from chinatown in SF. Yes, the midwest calmer and the south is friendlier, the east is more uptight and the west is more chillaxed, and the cuisine is different in different parts of the country, but these are pretty much details at the edges. Everyone speaks english, the low-e…

To me (an outsider from Europe) the US doesn't feel homogenous at all. Compare New York to Taxas or California to South Carolina and they feel as much as different as for example Germany and Spain. With the only difference being that all US states share the English language and Europe has different languages, but even that difference is slowly reducing. For example the French, famous for not speaking English 20 years ago now actually do it very well if they're under 40 or 50 or so. And similar for Germany.
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