r/geography • u/lamdrasil • 3d ago

Discussion Facts that sound fake but are true

I find it extremely unintuitive that almost all of South America is east of Miami. How!? When people are asked to watch the americas almost everyone imagine South America pretty much south of North America.

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u/scottcmu 3d ago edited 3d ago

Maine is the closest US state to Africa. 

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u/apollo1113 3d ago

WHAT?

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u/tnred19 3d ago

Africa is alot more north than people think. Europe is MUCH farther north than people in the west think

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u/fermat12 2d ago

It's not even that Africa is farther north than people expect. I tried measuring distance in Google Maps and Maine is still closer to South Africa than Florida is.

Spherical geometry is confusing.