Africa is BIG

[haliphax@hachyderm.io]

@infobeautiful Leaving out Alaska and Hawaii?

[lproven@social.vivaldi.net]

@infobeautiful It is worth saying that you can do your own versions of these with the splendid TheTrueSize website:

Compare Countries, States, Provinces, and Regions with This Simple Tool

Drag, drop and rotate countries, states, provinces, and regions around the map to compare their relative size. Is Greenland really as big as all of Africa? You may be surprised at what you find! A great tool for educators.

The True Size (thetruesize.com)

[lproven@social.vivaldi.net]

@infobeautiful P.S. Use the trashcan button to remove existing countries and clear the map.

Use the compass rose to spin your selected country to help it to fit better.

[hdunagan@mastodon.social]

@infobeautiful This map should be in high school history classes, hell in grade school.

[superflippy@mastodon.xyz]

@infobeautiful The India comparison surprises me most. I thought India was bigger than Brazil.

[jameswneal@mstdn.social]

@infobeautiful Well, it is a continent, after all. The U.S. just has some folks running it who think we are, too.

Which is the best explanation I've got for his obsession with Canada, Mexico, as well as all of Central and South America.

[redrabbity@mastodon.social]

@infobeautiful you must know that Taiwan Island is a part of China

[renardboy@mastodon.social]

@infobeautiful Good stuff, though would have liked to see Greenland, since on a map they look similar in size.

[ulriknyman@mastodon.social]

@infobeautiful

We need to start using a world-map that does not change sizes of the continents.

Dymaxion map - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

[davidm_yeg@beige.party]

@lproven @infobeautiful

[ravenpunk@mastodon.social]

@infobeautiful there is no way its larger than russia

[crovanian@mastodon.social]

@infobeautiful could be bigger.

[77nn@goto.77nn.it]

@UlrikNyman

Why would you do that? If size matters the most (for someone it looks it does) probably an histogram with country areas in km² would be best. If it's confusion about spatial placement of continents that you seek, then that map is great.

@infobeautiful

However for Africa comparison, I agree it's incredibly huge. But if it is for fairness, it would be fair to compare apples with apples. Not countries with continents. Yes, Europe comes out the tiniest fly both as a political entity and as a continent anyway you look at it.

[auser@mastodon.social]

@infobeautiful Comparing apples to oranges

[clutch_lever@mastodon.social]

@JamesWNeal @infobeautiful "manifest destiny" has been around a lot longer than the has...

[solitha@mastodon.social]

@RavenPunk The areas listed are reasonably accurate.

Asia is the largest continent, and Russia the largest country. But compared against the continents, Russia ranks behind Africa, North America, and South America.

@infobeautiful

[pdh@hessen.social]

@infobeautiful Actually, I was shocked more by the size of Russia and Brazil in comparison to Africa than by the size of Africa itself.
Particularly Russia has more than enough land and still wants Ukraine.

[pizzademon@mastodon.online]

@infobeautiful The Brazil one reminds me of Al Gore's joke
The Harvard Crimson:

He recalled a time in the sixth grade when a classmate pointed to the east coast of South America and the west coast of Africa and asked if they had ever fit together. The teacher said that was not the case

“The student went on to become a drug addict,” he joked. “And the teacher went on to become a scientist in the Bush administration.”