30 Geography Facts Most People Get Wrong #2
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- #Geography #GeographyFacts
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Antarctica is a desert because it receives less than 10 inches of precipitation a year. It is not because it snows instead of rains, it barely snows either.
Then how did the snow get there 🤯
@@vacantile Um winds?? 🙄
@@vacantile Slowly
@@vacantile it does occasionally snow, the ice sheet is very old, hence the depth of the ice. The wind blows the very cold old snow around most of Antarctica. There is also a totally dry area in Antarctica.
@@vacantile because it dose't melt
I've never heard anyone claim that Mexico is part of South America.
I agree completely. I've also never known anyone who thinks New York City is the capital of New York.
@@robertminor3967 I know many Americans that mistakingly think that. More than half of my High School students would think that as we are in AZ and most of them have never been further east than AZ or maybe Texas for a few of them.
Maybe people who don't look at maps of the region often, I don't know. Same with NYC being the capital of NY, but then again I'm from that state and not the city everyone associates with it.
Yeah this guy seems to love strawman fact checking & correcting. I ended up blocking the channel.
Maybe not South America but Central America. When people say North America they can sometimes just mean the USA and Canada. But its more than that.
A currency's strength is not due to how it converts to other currencies. This one was total nonsense.
I noticed that as well.
Ya, Just because they started with a higher worth doesn’t mean it’s ‘stronger’
Also, couldn't be bothered to look up the pronunciation of dinar.
Nominal value is not at all a valid way of determining the strength of a currency. Just imagining how weak the Korean Won is based on this not at all relevant metric.
Probably the geography channel should stick to geography.
Also, saying that the UK is a Western country has nothing to do with what hemisphere it’s in. It means that the culture and legal institutions are descended from Ancient Greece and Rome. Same thing with other European countries, most of whom are entirely east of the Prime Meridian.
8:10 Taiga is a forest biome and not a single forest, the Amazon rainforest is still the largest
We Russians may argue- Russian boreal forests (known in Russia as the taiga) represent the largest forested region on Earth (approximately 12 million km2), larger than the Amazon.
Taiga is, as you say, a type of forest. _The_ Taiga is a particular forest of that type, stretching effectively unbroken from Norway to the Sea of Okhotsk in Russia, just north of Japan and Korea. It is, indeed, considerably larger than the Amazon rainforest.
As you imply, the map in the video was incorrect, as it showed _all_ taiga, not just _the_ Taiga.
i can't imagine being isolated thousands of kilometers away from any village
I saw a world war 2 movie once where an officer tells the parents of one of his soldiers, "he died fighting for england". and the father replies, " he was scottish".
Which movie?
given the imbalance between Scotland and England the officer was technically correct.
Almost. This was a quote from the original film (The Man Who Never Was - 1956) based on the true events surrounding Operation Mincemeat. The man that died wasn't a soldier but he died in such a way that it could seem to be that he drowned ( vitally important for the Operation to succeed). Interestingly the identity of the body that they used was not released until 1996 and he, in fact, turned out to be Welsh - a man called Glyndwr Michael - a mistake we can forgive the 1956 film for. Great film though.
@@izaactheberean6860 Please see my comment.
Yup! The Scots hate the British. Dad was from glasgow😂
9:12 this “fun fact” is kinda wack lmao, this is basically just calling all of Western Europe “actually Eastern”
Pretty sure we are "The West" based on our culture being formed west of Constantinople...and not the arbitrary Greenwich line.
@@projektkobra2247 Or more likely due to the "Cold War". As the English argued strongly that the line dividing the East and West Hemispheres should run though a part of South East London it is no surpise that some parts of England are to the east of that line.
Well, most of the world's population is well east of Poland.
Poland being Eastern Europe, of course.
But eastern is east of the west.
@@MrXyzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz No, it was called "The West" literally thousands of years before the Cold War.
My favorite seemingly impossible but true geographic fact is: Montreal is farther south than Trieste, Italy.
That actually blows my mind.
@@stephenbanks5952 Toronto is even with the north coast of Spain. Ontario and Quebec's big population centers are not cold climates because of how far north they are, but because of how far inland they are. They don't get the warming by ocean trade winds.
@@brianarbenz1329 Yes I honestly don't know why I was not more aware of this. I had the simplistic view that Canada = North = cold. Mind opened.
@@stephenbanks5952 In the U.S., we automatically place all things Canada as being north of us. Yet. Seattle is farther north than Montreal. More than half of Canadians live farther south than Seattle.
@@brianarbenz1329 Mind blown. I am guilty also of looking at in such a simplistic way.
Some of these facts you could have made sound even more remarkable: 1) the Panama Canal runs slightly northwest to southeast, so the western end is in the Atlantic and the Eastern is in the Pacific Ocean, opposite sides to what the oceans are to the country. 2) yes you only have to drive through Russia to get from North Korea to Finland, but Norway also has a small border with Russia. Since it looks further away on the map, this is even more impressive-sounding.
LOL. I honestly didn't believe you had got fact 1) correct, so I went and checked and you are absolutely correct. Two points arise from this: (1) well done sir for adding to my education; and (2) shame we are unable to trust anything now without verifying.
I would say the two oceans are more south or north rather than east or west. What I was surprised to read is that Panama was not a country before the canal.
EDIT: I totally get what you mean about east and west now. My bad.
@@stephenbanks5952 I see your point, but what I meant is that the Atlantic is to the east of Central America, and the Pacific is to the west, on a large scale… That’s interesting about becoming a country though.
@@martinschalken7583 Yes did you see my edit? I got it now. I was just looking at the oceans directly around Panama and not thinking of the main body of water. It is certainly an interesting fact. Also I read that 25.000 people died during construction. Tragic.
@@stephenbanks5952 oh yes, I see the edit now. :) Wow, 25000 is a crazy number, it’s so sad 😞
In common parlance, being a 'Western' country has nothing to do with where geographically a nation is. EG both Australia and New Zealand are solidly Western nations although they're very much in the Eastern Hemisphere. Western refers to the cultural aspects which are aligned to Western Europe (although this increasingly includes all of Europe excepting the ex-SSRs and Asian Turkey).
No one would ever refer to parts of England such as Kent, Essex and Suffolk or any other part of Western Europe as eastern.
A more correct assertion would have been more simply to state that the UK is a nation that resides both in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres which are arbitrary lines in any event. Up until the 20th century, folks in France and indeed some other European nations used the Paris Meridian rather than Prime (Greenwich) Meridian.
Yes, that's right. And also by his logic, most of mainland Europe would then be in the "East," while all those countries, such as Germany, Italy, and all the others are considered the Western World.
Similar issue with the recent-ish term of global south, which excludes Australia & New Zealand, but include India
At this point i would call Australia, Japan and even Korea as part of the Western rule based world. Basically the opposing system to the autocracies in this world.
Well, are we talking physical geography, human geography or economic geography?
While I like your explanation, I have to disagree with you. To me it was clear he was talking about hemispheres (perhaps it could have been stated for those who were not clear on that). You're talking more about cultural aspect. It's all a matter of point of view.
One fact I find amazing is that modern humans lived in North America before the Great Lakes formed (about 10,000 years ago.)
So many of these geography facts were wrong
i agree
Such as? To refute give examples
@@legatemichael Taiga being the biggest forest
@@legatemichael I think Istanbul is the largest city in the Mediterranean region.
@@Donizen1 I agree. I think he meant on the Mediterranean proper--but that's not what he said--and even then it depends on what you consider the Mediterranean proper; is the Sea of Marmara the Mediterranean? I say yes.
The pronunciation of Czechia is really damn painful. What you said is a region in the caucasus.
For a geography channel, that was quite the blunder
But Chechenia doesn't use the Euro either. 😉
@@3komma141592653 Yeah, I know. What's the argument here? He was clearly talking about EU member states
He really makes some howlers. He thinks that square kilometers are the same as kilometers squared and he always mispronounces 'Suriname'.
what can I say, we got Chechnyed
Not true! The narrator pronounced Czechia as "Chechia", which is not correct, but it's definitely no CheechNya'. There' is an "n" in Чечня and the stress is on the final syllable - different name, different country. Of course it's correct to pronounce the one in Eastern Europe as "czekh'ia" (more or less). But your point is off. I'm perfectly content saying "Czechia" because I know Slavic pronunciation. But personally I'm just glad we finally got rid of "Czech Republic" and gave the country a proper name. :) Chekh'ia vs. CheechNya'. There's a substantial difference.
New Zealand isn't even in the top 5 closest countries to Australia. PNG, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Solomon Islands and France (New Caledonia) are all closer.
France is a cheater on the globe in this matter. Being a direct neighbour of Australia and Brazil at the same time.
France, LOL. Ain't geography fun?
France, closer to Australia than New Zealand. That would be some fun trivia at the pub.
While we are we are at it.. as of 2023 Canada and Denmark officially share a land border. No kidding - look up the "Whisky War".
@@edwardofgreene I LOVE this (Canada/Denmark/Whisky War - Hans Island)! ❤❤ Thank you for my loss of over an hour of precious time surfing Wikipedia and Google Maps. And it seems the creation of the Joint Task Force to determine the boundary, was announced on my birthday, and the final agreement took place on my sister's birthday. I feel *_personally_* involved. 😂
France isn't closer to Australia than New Zealand because New Caledonia isn't part of France, it's an overseas territory under French sovereignty and has significant autonomy.
If you consider Cyprus to be asian, then the Mountains of Georgia will definatly not count as european.
Not true. The Europe/Asia dividing line runs through the Borsporus, across the Black Sea and to the Ural Mountains. By the accepted definition, Georgia is in fact in Asia. Along with Armenia, Israel, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia... It's just a geographical dividing line. (And I agree - you could draw a line that make Cyprus "European," but that would involve a bend in the traditional line.
@@michaelarrowood4315 With Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia, they are still commonly referred to collectively under the old colonial term of "The Middle East": they are only in the middle east if you are looking from London or Paris. Yhe correct name for the region is Southwest Asia.
In the world of football (soccer) Israel and Kazakhstan are part of Europe, along with Cyprus. I don't see Cyprus as part of Asia, despite its proximity to Turkiye which is in both continents.
@@stevencooke6451football people are not exactly known for being factually right when it comes to geography.
I had a discussion with a Georgian about whether his country was in Europe or in Asia. And he could tell me that during the USSR's time, Georgia was considered to be Asian. Since it was south of the Caucasus mountains. That of course means Armenia is also Asian, even though I personally would consider both of those countries to be culturally European.
However, part of Azerbaijan is north of the Caucasus, and so it is a partly European country. Just like Turkey and Kazakhstan.
* frantically changes travel plans to get from Helsinki to North Korea *
@@windofhorus666 I found it pretty weird he chose finland instead of norway, which is farther from NK.
Either way, if your from anywhere in the west, you may want to reconsider driving because the Russians will probably "borrow" your car and strap a big gun to it as it will be more technologically advanced than equipment they're using against Ukraine. 😊
While I was in school, here in Costa Rica, we studied that there were 4 distinct regions in The Americas: North America, The Caribbean, Central America and South America. I´ve also seen maps and people with the perspective of a single american continent. Central American origins are volcanic islands that emerged and ended up as a bridge between North America and South America thus is a different region, we studied.
It really depends which aspect you are focusing on, right?
If you look at tectonic plates, there are 2 major continental ones (North American and South American, hence the two continents) then there is Caribbean plate (which includes at least parts of Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador + Great Antilles islands minus Cuba) then you have Cocos and Nazca plates which are not continental. That's a physical geography.
If you look at the human or cultural geography, then there's Central American region coming into place, right?
One thing is certain though. Be it physical or cultural geography, Mexico belongs to North America (sorry to all confused non-believers, not sorry).
I know this is a personal opinion, and not a fact. But I tend to say that the border between North America and South America is the Darien Gap. So Panama would be a trans-continental country in my opinion.
@@Tjalve70 The southern border of Panama is the North America/South America border. You can call different regions of the Americas whatever you want (e.g. "The Caribbean, Central America" etc) but they're not continents.
@@jovetj As I said: I know this is a personal opinion, and not a fact.
But I do feel that the Darien Gap is a more sensible place to set as the border between continents, rather than just a random international border.
That is after all the reason why countries like Turkey and Kazakhstan are transcontinental. Because the border between continents follow natural geological features, and not international borders.
@@Tjalve70 The fact is there is that the Caribbean Plate is included as the initial poster correctly stated. Sometimes opinions take over the facts, right? 😉 Nice logical argument on your opinion.
12:20 omg, we (the Czechs) just got just got Chechnyad by you😭
I haven't listened yet (Still on the fence about it after starting the previous video from three years ago), but you Chech rather than Czech?
5:15 you’re a brave man telling unionists in NI that they’re not British
Brave but correct (I was born & raised there).
Well technically (geographically speaking), all of Ireland is part of the British Isles 😊
@@PK-blue You're correct, but Britain is simply one of the islands in "the British Isles" - and those who inhabit the island of Britain are British.
(I had friends from the UK give me a serious lesson on "UK vs England vs Britain" years ago! Lol!)
I've known people in NI who refer to "over in GB".
Die-hard Loyalists hate the fact that their passport serves to remind them that they are Northern Irish.
I know that for people from the UK this is always a contentious and complicating thing, but, looking at it as an outsider, it's really easy: everybody from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is British. That includes Northern Irish. They may be ethnically Irish, but their nationality is British, i.e. that which is stated in their passport and therefore the only nationality that has legal meaning when they travel abroad. Someone from Northern Ireland traveling to my home country, The Netherlands, cannot for instance claim to be Irish when entering the country: they can only use their British nationality to enter. It's like a Frisian refusing to accept that their nationality is Dutch or a Fleming refusing to accept that their nationality is Belgian.
Every child in the United States learns in grade school that the capital of New York is Albany.
Every child in the rest of the world learns that Americans know nothing of world geography.
You could run through about half the state capitals that are not the largest city. In some cases, not in the top three.
And then, unless they live in New York they promptly forget it.
That’s like somebody thinking the capital of California is Los Angeles or the capital of Illinois is Chicago. I would think Buffalo would be a more popular wrong answer than NYC anyway.
I knew that and I'm a Brit
5:15 As a Scottish person I can tell you we don’t like being called English
I can relate. Canadians don’t like being referred to as Americans either. Not bashing America, just pointing out that we’re not Americans anymore than Mexicans are.
@@robertpearson8798The moniker American is itself confusing. While American 99% of the time refers to the US we all technically share the continent therefore it could apply to all of us. So while I agree as my family is all from Canada I will and do correct this yet kind of understand if it’s a honest mistake. Another point is all “Americans” are not the same being from California I really dislike if someone groups me in with New Yorkers or Texans etc. as we all are significantly different from each other.
My dad was born in Glasgow and he had a dislike..almost hate of the Brits. But love the Queen.😂
In my experience, Scots don't like to be called British either.
@@robertpearson8798 Technically, Canadians are Americans... just _North Americans_ not _United States of America-ns._ 🤷
We're counting currency exchange rates as geography? Hmm.
Economic geography exists.
@@rogerstone3068 Yeah
@@rogerstone3068 exchange rates have nothing to do with the "power" of a currency
9:20 the "western world" was delineated by the Iron Curtain, part of which was the Berlin Wall … nothing to do with the prime meridian
Australia is considered part of Western Civilization. The term is more cultural than geographic.
@@edwardofgreeneyeahs
I think you may want to be a bit careful with your words, since a couple of those facts you stated would be technically incorrect.
The largest city in the "Mediterranean Region" would be Istanbul. You could argue that it's not directly on the Mediterranean, depending on how you count the Sea of Marmara, but few would say it's not part of the "Mediterranean Region".
You state that the United States' "most southern point" is in Hawaii. It is, however, actually in American Samoa. What you stated initially was about the most southern point in a US state, which would be correct. However, in your last sentence you generalize this into "the country's most southern point" which is untrue.
Picky, picky,he made a nice video that’s the point
@@dirtfarmer7472
He made a video that is trying to get clicks and views. Validity was secondary.
@@alanmcentee9457
Yes Sir, you are correct it’s all about content not being correct, I think you & I both like correctness
Continued ignorance of geography can be attributed, in part, to “facts” which really are just factoids (purported information used to increase internet traffic).
9:04 #20 I'm pretty sure, 'Western,' in this context has nothing at all to do with hemispheres. I think its more in relation to civilization with respect to Rome and Greece.
When people say western countries they don't mean "west of the meridian"
3:07 Norway would have been a better example.
@@TheOneAnd178 💯
Yea i was thinking that too lol. It was actually part of a question on a pubquiz i attended sometime ago. How many countries do you have to go through to reach Iran from Norway? It felt great when i realised Norway bordered Russia just a tiny bit and my team was surprised about that being true lol.
I still got the question wrong because i mentally had the shortest route as Norway > Russia > Kazakhstan > Turkmenistan > Iran, completely forgot Azerbaijan borders both Russia and Iran. Super fun trivia question imo, it actually sparked more interest in me about Geography
And it is still not true, as the video says you can drive fro Finland to North Korea. There is no road bridge between Russia and North Korea.
@@alesgill I am sure it is technically possible to drive over a railroad bridge.
The video didn't say it had to be LEGAL to drive from Russia to North Korea.
@@bloemkoolendestreetgang450 Another interesting quiz question: How many countries do you have to drive through, to get from France to Netherlands?
Here's another one that always blows my mind: Alaska is the northernmost U.S. state-but it's also the westernmost U.S. state, AND the easternmost U.S. state! (That's because most of it is in the western hemisphere, but a part of it is in the eastern hemisphere!)
And don't ferget that Sarah Palin can see Russia from her front porch.
I would have guessed Hawai'i would be the most western, but I would have been wrong...
The end of the Aleutians is the Western-most point of the USA. It's in the Eastern Hemispher: true. Travelling west from, say Juneau, to the end of the islands you keep going West. Just because you enter the Eastern Hemisphere doesn't meant all of a sudden you are heading East; d'oh.
@@VanillaMacaron551 No she didn't.
@@Chapps1941 They didn't say you are "heading east"; they said that the tip of the Aleutians is the easternmost point in the U.S., which is different. Seems fair to me. If you don't use the hemispheres to delineate east and west, you get stuck with the fact that the earth is spherical and the words "easternmost" and "westernmost" don't even mean anything at all! (New York City would be even further west than the tip of the Aleutians.)
0:13 People who have little to no interest in geography will not watch this video 💀
btw fun fact: The most crowded place to ever exist is Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, with 1.9 million people per km2. If the entire the entire world had this density, you could fit all humans in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, it was demolished in 1994.
hk mentioned :) that place was horrible to live in according to local myths (which is more or less true)
Wait. Rhode Island was demolished in 1994? Why were we not told about it?
@@billseymour-jones3224 no the kowloon walled city was destroyed
Did Connecticut invade Rhode Island?
Well, it was surely fortunately instead of unfortunately...
1. France' longest land border is with... Brazil;
2. A single Brazilian state (Amazonas) is large enough to hold 18 european countries;
3. This is harder to understand, but: Brazil is closer to Europe, to Africa and to every single american country (including the ones in North America) than its farthest cities are close to each other.
@8bitsaga actually canada can make the same claim, except we can add closer to asia to the list.
@@timmorren That's cool! I didn't know that! Is canada closer to Paraguai than its farthest cities are to each other?
Europe is not really a continent. It’s just a culturally distinct portion of Asia…sorry Europeans…a mountain range doesn’t make a new continent
Indeed, hence the term Eurasia. We are more akin to the Indian sub-continent, but many Brits hate to be told that.
@@gijgij4541 Brits still refer to Europe as if it's another continent.
@@stevencooke6451 "Fog in Channel, Europe cut off".
@@gijgij4541 Actually, I would say that India is more of a continent than Europe is. Since it is its own tectonic plate.
@@Tjalve70 True.
0:42 "Let's imagine the Panama Canal in our heads..." Ouch, that's causing me a headache!
6:44 It seems a bit stange to define a currency as "strong" just because its basic unit has a high value.
If some South American country suddenly decided to introduce a new currency unit called "Doubloon" with a value of 10,000 pesos, that wouldn't really make their currency any stronger. It would just replace a large number with a smaller one.
@herrhartmann3036 that's not really how the value of a currency works. You don't just decide what it is, it's defined by its buying power compared to other currencies on the global market/economy, and other economical things i dont understand. It's not stronger because it has a higher number, it has a higher number because it's stronger.
@@marcog.verbruggen674 No, a government can literally make up a currency value. Venezuela has removed zeroes from its currency like 4 times since 2008
@@DY142 yeah but is it ACTUALLY worth the amount of zeros they chose, just because they did? If the value did change wouldnt it have to be because of stuff like.. idk, foreign debt being forgiven or something? Im not an economist, i just know that currency only ever has a relative value to something else determined by certain factors. Used to be relative to gold, then oil, and i think now its the dollar itself which makes no sense to me but then money is a contrivance anyway..
Cuz if the value of a currency could just be made up by the government like that, then my country could instantly become the richest nation on earth tomorrow and i could use one cent to buy the Louvre.
@@marcog.verbruggen674 That's not how it works. OP is correct. The Japanese yen is their base denomination. 145 yen equal a dollar. Do you really think the yen is 145 times weaker than the dollar?
The "strength" of a currency is not determined by the exact value of its base unit, but by its stability. That means mostly its resistance to inflation.
The removal of zeroes from a currency is mostly a symbolic act, but once it's done the currency will actually be worth more.
The strength of the currency determines whether or not it will be able to hold the new value for any meaningful length of time.
I find it ridiculous that anyone over the age of 12 thinks Mexico is in South America just because it's among the countries conquered by the Spanish and so uses that language like some South American countries do. Of course, South America's largest country does not speak Spanish; Brazil's national language is Portuguese.
And much of the US was once conquered and occupied by Spain.
Are you American?
@@gijgij4541 Yep, born and raised in Southern California and living in Arizona on the beautiful Colorado River for 40 years now. Im a professional journalist so I do a lot of research for articles on topics like this :-)
I know them as Central America, from Guatamala to the Darien gap. From there on I class it as South America.
@@adrianjameSASbury In the US I was taught that the North American continent is everything from Panama to Canada. (Central America is a sub-set of North America from Panama to Mexico. Not a continent in its own right.)
My BIL, from Peru, was taught that there were 5 continents. All of the Western Hemisphere being America - no North or South just... America, all of it (and Australia doesn't count as a continent). I have learned since that most of Latin America classifies the continents that way.
The Kuwaiti dinar has the highest value per base unit of currency against a dollar. It just means you get more dollars numerically and has nothing to do with 'strongest', Reserve currencies are stronger, the dollar being the 'strongest. And Birmingham may have a greater length of canals than Venice but that´s like saying a paint wharehouse in Luton has more paint than the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Birmingham has 160km of canal, the Jing0Hang Grand Canal in China is 1776km long.
And 'Western' is an old generic term used to describe countries west of USSR during the cold war, it never referred to hemispheres.
7/10
When it comes to the strength of a currency, I agree with you. But when I googled "what is the definition of a strong currency", I got some results that I didn't agree with.
Agree on canals. The Erie Canal in New York is 545km long, and does have some great scenery along it, but it's not Venice.
For years, I thought Iceland was part of Scandinavia because Björk sings “how Scandinavian of me” in her song Hunter. Only years later did I realize I misunderstood the meaning of the lyrics. (She’s poking fun at Scandinavia, not saying she IS Scandinavian.)
I would say Iceland is culturally Scandinavian. But not geographically.
But then again, you could say that geographically, Denmark isn't in Scandinavia either.
Norway and North Korea also are just one country apart!
You note Hawaii is the US most southern state, I find it interesting that Alaska is the most northern, western and surprisingly the most eastern because the Aleutian Islands cross the international date line so extend into the eastern hemisphere.
Alaska doesn't cross the IDL, the IDL takes a diversion to the west of it.
It's the 180⁰ meridian that Alaska's Aleutian Islands extend across into the Eastern hemisphere.
@@robertfoulkes1832 agreed it doesn’t cross the IDL. I MISSPOKE. IT DOES CROSS 180 degrees West into the Eastern Hemisphere.
The claim that Alaska is the most eastern state because it crosses an imaginary line of longitude is nonsense. The Aleutians are not east of Anchorage.
@@howardcitizen2471 Just because you pass the 180 parallel doesn't affect something being east or west of you. East and West in that context is just relative to your location the same as saying to the left, right, up, or down. It's just a line breaking the earth up into sections the same as the equator does for North and South.
@@MrCho14 I've tried to explain that to people myself! If I walk west across the 180° west longitude line, I'm still walking west. If one were to make a reference line in the geographical center of the US, running north to south, the westernmost point is in Alaska, as you would have to travel west from that line to reach it. Crossing the equator or the 180° west or east line of longitude doesn't mean you instantly change your direction of travel.
The fact at 2:13 actually surprised me, and I thought I was a geography nerd 😭😭
I wouldn't pull people up on getting geography facts wrong if I couldn't tell the difference between 280 square kilometres and 280 kilometres squared.
It's an acceptable way to say it, it's simply saying 280(km²). I would be more worried about his multiple incorrect facts and his terrible pronunciation of Czechia
@@gappleofdiscord9752 I disagree. 280 kilometres squared is 280km X 280km = 78400km2. Massive difference.
@@charlieinsingapore It is true that that's an ambiguity in english, but it's a common way of expressing it. Again, when you say "280 kilometers squared," you don't imply that there are any parentheses, and thus that would be completely correct.
@@gappleofdiscord9752 No, Charlie's correct.
@@gijgij4541 When it comes to language, what's correct is very vague. But I have heard people say x miles/km squared many times. It makes perfect sense and is exactly as if you are reading how it would be written. Do you have any source for your agreement with Charlie? Because there really is no authority on speaking.
You really shouldn't assume that most people don't know basic facts about Geography. Most people would only get SOME of these wrong. Since I am not most people, I knew all of these facts already. This video was painful to watch.
I'm surprised that there was no mention of the relative "north-ness" of Europe compared to the Americas. Most people in North America are shocked to hear things like Paris being equally north as Quebec or that London is significantly farther north than Winnepeg. The one that blew me most away when I first learned it was that New York City and Madrid are pretty much equally far north. Almost all of Europe is north of almost all of the US.
I wish I could see a map demonstrating what you say as I am fascinated by longityde/latitude
Same here. The 49th parallel which separates Canada from the US is roughly the middle point of Europe. So the northern half of Europe lies north of the border between the US and Canada and the southern half of Europe lies below this line.
Small quibble: 7500 km is not "3 times longer" as compared to 2500 km; 7500 km is "3 times *AS LONG AS* 2500 km" or "2 times *LONGER THAN* 2500 km"
...it's a pet peeve of mine, along with lose/loose, there/they're/their (which I admit I sometimes type the wrong word!) and using 's to indicate plural (like "the 70's" which should be, simply, "the 70s"
of course theres also the issue with use of the word "literally" when meaning "figuratively," and using the phrase "begging the question" when meaning "raising the question."
I had the problem of spelling thier wrong all the time, till some said there/they're/their, all start with the word 'the'.
Another interesting fact: Which country has the most islands? It most be something like Indonesia or maybe Phillipines or not? No, it's Sweden
Hey the U.S. state that is closest to Africa, is MAINE! Interesting!
@@niceguy7171 really? More than Massachusetts
That's why it's known as the Maineland!
@@Dutch_Mapper11 The northern part of Maine is further east than Massachusetts, even including Cape Cod.
True, 5,076 km from Maine to Morocco. Puerto Rico is only very slightly nearer, 5,069 km to Mauritania.
Fun fact 1: The three tallest mountains in North America are in three different countries.
Denali in Alaska (USA), Mt. Logan in Yukon (Canada), and Pico De Orizaba in Mexico
Fun fact 2: The northern tip of Brazil is closer to every country in the Americas than it is to the southern tip of Brazil
Mt. McKinley.
FIFY.
That brazil fact blew my mind
@@projektkobra2247 Mt. McKinley is now called Denali
@@daydreamer8662 I do not recognize politically (ie not actually) correct nonsense from communists.
I'm skeptical about Brazil. Even Canada? Even Greenland (considered part of the Americas if I'm not mistaken)? I doubt it. (Nonetheless, interesting even if it's only *_most_* of the countries in the Americas, and not all of them.)
Dear God, nobody thinks ALL islands are tropical!
Hmm. I live in North America, and this is the first I've heard that Central America is part of North America. I suppose it technically isn't a continent, but the way I've always heard it is that it's not part of either North or South America.
Also, I don't think "the West" has ever been considered synonymous with the Western Hemisphere. It's a cultural/political region.
There is no such thing as "Central America"- There is North America, and South America. The southern border of Panama is the boundary. So, Panama and points north is North America, and south of Panama is South America.
@@jovetj I guess that depends on your criteria for the existence of a region. Your criteria seem very pedantic. Whatever. Have a nice day!
In the USA, nobody has ever thought that New York City was a capital city. In fact, only 17 out of the 50 states have capitals that are their largest cities.
Also, a lot of people think Poland is in Eastern Europe. But, in fact, the center of Europe is in Lithuania to the east of Poland, placing Poland in Western Europe.
Bro I think most people know that the entire Pacific Ocean isn’t tropical unless they are the many that don’t even know what the Pacific Ocean is 💀
@@jasonberg3230 people don't know much about their own planet
Half the people think Africa is a country, and no, they don't mean South Africa only, and also not Central African Republic.
Most people don't think about the Pacific at all, and when they do, their first association will be tropical islands. That's the whole point of this video.
Maybe if one thought the world was flat they could think that. Or thought about Russia and Alaska.
Fun fact: Alaska is not just the northern most state in the U.S., it is also the western and eastern most states in the U.S. as the Aleutian Islands actually cross the international date line, meaning they are in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Bit of a showoff Alaska is.
That pronunciation of contiguous was quite something
I was wondering if anyone else noticed.
Alaska:
USA's most northern state
Most Western state
Biggest state
State with most islands
Most easterly state.
Can you really consider the taiga one forest when it's separated by the Bering Strait? Both halves are probably still bigger than the Amazon, but they're two "forests" not one
I think he's confusing Taiga as a specific forest rather than what i understand it to mean which is a biome type. Also that map he showed included Iceland, which is famous for having almost no trees. So there's some questionable research done for this fact.
OMG, "Western Country" absolutely DOES NOT mean "Western Hemisphere"!!!!!!!!! "Western Countries" means countries whose culture and language are derived from Western Europe as opposed to "Eastern Countries" which are based in Eastern Asia. It has NOTHING to do with Hemispheres, which have arbitrary boundaries, anyway.
Technically, geographically Great Britain is a single island, but politically it is the largest island of the British Isles plus the offshore islands which contribute to the make up of the countries of England Scotland and Wales. It is so named to distinguish it from Brittany in France (Bretagne and Grand Bretagne), and not a case of status.
2 Geography Facts Most RUclipsrs Get Wrong: 1. The US Dollar is currently by far the world's strongest currency with Euro coming 2nd. Those silly conversion rates have little to do with currency strength. 2. There are several deserts in Europe, not just one.
This is wrong on so many levels
2:45 Why stop at Finland? You can actually go from North Korea to Norway by going through Russia only, as Norway also borders Russia above the top of Finland
Currecies are NOT geography!!!!!
In a way, there's only 1 country between North Korea and Poland.
In a way.
Also, there's only 1 country between North Korea and Norway.
Just in terms of stereotypes and Hollywood I always find it funny how Paris is represented as golden sunsoaked Latin streets while London is shown as rainy or snowy, when really the two cities have virtually identical weather.
I've been to both in the Summer. Paris can have much hotter days for longer period of times than London.
@@thomHD I don't think Paris is ever depicted as Latin! Its climate is not as hot as Latin countries, but it is warmer than London because it's further south, inland, and not on an island
Our maritime climate does make us rather more moist, which is why you can feel the cold creeping damp in London in winter. Paris's climate is more continental.
@@baby_joe And it is more susceptible to the warm winds from the south, siroccos I believe.
Paris 2C warmer summer days, 2C colder winter nights. Paris has slightly wetter spring, London has wetter autumn. London is windier. Info from weatherspark
The most interesting fact about Panama canal is that you travel west to get to the Atlantic ocean and travel east to get to the pacific ocean which is so counterintuitive
12:20 what the hell was that pronunciation of Czechia? Hurted my ears
It’s “checkia”
@@pavelarsen48 omg same
@pavelarsen48 Should be Chechnya, pronounced "CHECH-nee-a."
@@gy2gy246 you're not right
@@gy2gy246Chechnia isn't in the European Union. Please pay attention. He was talking about countries in the European Union that don't use the euro currency.
Tabernas Desert: Located in the Almería province of Spain, this desert is considered the only natural desert in Europe. It receives less than 200 liters of water per year. The area was once a filming location for spaghetti westerns, including the Dollars Trilogy.
Deliblato Sands: Located in Serbia, this is Europe's largest sandy terrain.
Oleshky Sands: Located in Ukraine, this is the second largest sandy expanse in Europe.
Błędów Desert: Located in Poland.
Las Dunas de Maspalomas: Located in the Canary Islands, this dune system is a protected natural environment.
Abanilla Desert: Located in the Murcia province of Spain, this desert covers an area of around 2,500 square kilometers.
Oltenian Sahara Desert: Located in Romania.
Highlands of Iceland: A semi-arid and desert-like region.
Accona Desert: Located in Italy.
The Finnish language is closely related to Hungarian. Although the NY State capital is spelled Albany, it's pronounced ALL-buh-knee, rather than AL-buh-knee.
Sorry, but driving from Helsinki to Pyongyang requires Russia--plus a little bit of China. Also, that's if you could actually drive across Russia. I could be wrong, but I believe it's still true that the only way to get from the Western to the Eastern border is via the Trans Siberian Railroad.
There are only 3 syllables in Aleutian--uh-LOU-shun.
The Kuwaiti "dollar" is called a DEE-nahr, rather than a DIE-nahr.
In #18, it wasn't explained where the red arrow for the southernmost US point is; it's Ka Lae (cah LIE) on the southernmost point of the Big Island.
Re. #25, I once got curious, and put together a list of all the seas of the world on my computer. My final count was 65.
You got me on #29.
Your third point is wrong. There is no necessity to cross any part of China to get from Finland to North Korea because Russia borders both.
@@robertfoulkes1832,oops! You're right! I looked at the outline page of my world atlas, instead of the colored page farther back, and I missed that stretch of maybe 30 miles.
Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian are distinct and rather rare, in that they are not Indo-European. The only other European language which also lies outside the Indo-European family is Basque.
@@gijgij4541, I knew about the other 3 as being "oddball" languages, but I didn't realize that Estonian is also in the group.
@@robertfoulkes1832But if you were to try to drive it, you'd have to cut through China as there are no roads across the Russia/North Korea border, only a single rail bridge.
‘South America’,Central America & Mexico are
Together called ‘Latin America’
That's true, but I've seen some maps that included Mexico with North America.
2 - common English usage has come to include Finland in Scandinavia
3 - the polar regions were not considered deserts until fairly recently, and only because of the fairly arbitrary technical definition given for a desert, which is the one not including the evaporation which is included in other definitions of desert.
6 - Papua New Guinea is far closer than Indonesia. Saibai Island (part of Qld) to mainland PNG is just 4km, whereas the closest points between Indonesia and Australia is 75km (Deliverance Island to Irian Jaya).
7 - If the Sea of Marmara is considered to be part of the Mediterranean Sea then Istanbul is the largest city. If not the populations of Barcelona and Alexandria are similar and depending on what area the cities are said to contain.
11 - there are a number of lakes claiming to have the highest salinity. The Guinness Book of Records has Gaet'ale Pond in Ethiopia with 43.3% whereas Don Juan Pond is 40.2%.
18. Hawaii is the state that contains the most southernmost point, but the US's most southern point is in American Samoa
20. Western means western Europe not western hemisphere.
Common English usage has come to make "America" mean the U.S.A. That does not mean that they really are the same.
Likewise, Finland is *not* part of Scandinavia, no matter how you use the word "Scandinavia".
@@md2perpe Words do not have intrinsic meaning. They are defined by how they are used and as such the definitions change, and there can be multiple definitions for single words.
@@chriswatson7965 So if I call you a 'hen' that's okay to you if that is how I use the word?
@@md2perpemore like if EVERYONE starts calling him a hen to the point of where people don’t think twice about it, then yes, it would eventually be correct
@@geo3172 Not everyone calls Finland a Scandinavian country. We in Sweden do not.
Stangely, Ulster Unionists (& perhaps others) also call themselves 'British'
I noticed athletes use GB not UK. Excluding northern ireland athletes? 😅
@@ubaft3135 Interesting point, I looked it up: “Officially, the team is the "Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team", although athletes from Northern Ireland may opt to compete under the auspices of the Olympic Federation of Ireland instead.”
Not always. In soccer, they use England, Scotland, Northern Ireland. Other team sports do the same. The Olympics do only recognize GB though.
This is explained in a very confusing manner in the "Foil Arms and Hog" video called "WTF is Brexit?".
I don't know if I can link anything here, but the video code is daB7np-RtOM
Being from New York City, I would cry if I asked 100 people if NYC was the capital and most said yes
5:02 You gave Scotland more land in the north of England when it doesn’t have it
Probably thinks the boundary is still at Hadrian's Wall 😂
Well, Northumberland has been flipped many times. Okay, not since James VI / I maybe...
@@gijgij4541 Berwick, yes, but Northumberland as a whole? If so, I hadn't heard of it. When was it?
On the other hand, all the coast up as far as Edinburg and a bit beyond used to be part of the English kingdom of Northumbria.
@@kgbgb3663 I erred: all of Northumberland, as far south as Hartlepool and the Tees, was only in the twelfth century. And Berwick, which was flipped many times, was of course in Berwickshire, on the Scottish side of the river...
@@gijgij4541 Thanks. I'll look that up.
I don't mind geography, because i walk my own path. :)
Alexandria isnt the largest city in tze med, its Istanbul it has a population of 15 mio while Alexandria only of 5.
Istanbul is not on the Mediterranean, though.
@@andrewlaurence8274 Depends how you define the mediterranean sea.
@@NeverEverCleveronly if you define it wrong. Istanbul has the Black Sea to the North and the Sea of Marmara to the South
@@phillyphill6871 It seems a bit picky when you know the Mediterranean Sea is actually multiple seas .... Ionian Aegean Tyrenhinian .. so I have no problem with the Sea of Marmaris being just another component of the Med.
One of the most amazing things about the panama canal is that you actually travel West to get to the Atlantic from the Pacific and you travel East to get to the Pacific from the Atlantic. Despite the major parts of the masses of those waters indicating the reverse would be true.
Something that makes the fact about Alexandria in Egypt even more astonishing is that a very large part of it now lies beneath the Mediterranean. So if that was still above water it would be even bigger.
Another surprising fact is that, on some days of the year, due to the tilt of the earth, the sun rises in London (England) at exactly the same time as it does in Sao Paulo (Brazil).
Another amazing fact. If Mongolia was given it's independence, it would be the second largest country in the world, while Russia would still be the biggest.
Another one. The most northern point of Brazil is closer to New York than it is to the southernmost point of Brazil. Which becomes even more amazing when you realise that Brazil is closer to Africa than it is to the USA.
London, despite it's mild climate, is further north than New York, The Great Lakes, Montreal, Quebec City, Winnipeg and even Kiev(Ukraine) All of which have far colder winters.
I think you mean Siberia, not Mongolia. But point taken.
@@sanchellewellyn3478 I think you're correct.
The northernmost point of Brazil is closer to *Canada* than it is to the southernmost point of Brazil (in distance and latitude).
The easternmost part of Brazil is closer to *Africa* than to the westernmost part of Brazil.
Isn’t East Timor the closest country to Australia?
No but it close
Tecnhically, Papua New Guinea and Australia are only a couple miles apart when you take into account Moimi Island (Australia) and Kassa Island (Papua New Guinea).
If you go from mainland to mainland, I believe Papua New Guinea still beats East Timor by 2 or 3x (90ish miles to 250ish miles)
Papua New Guinea is much closer to the Australian mainland than even Tasmania. In fact it is part of the same continental land mass, only being separated a few thousand years ago at the end of the last ice age.
Why is everyone asking about Istanbul being the largest city on the Mediterranean? It's literally not on the Mediterranean.
He specifically says 'Mediterranean Region'; not 'on the Mediterranean'. I'm not sure that's clearly defined which is probably the issue.
Always thought Istanbul was part of Asia
@@user-zn5qg4se6q The historical center of Istanbul is in Europe. But I think now, the city spans both continents. So you're not completely wrong.
@@user-zn5qg4se6q And so it can't be on the Mediterranean? Aren't Beirut and Tel Aviv also in Asia?
The "Seven Seas" refers to the Seven Ocean Dividions: North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Southern.
#20 is a geography fact that you got wrong. Well, I guess your geography is correct, but your understanding of the concept is off. The "West" or the "Western World" is more so a cultural concept and has little/nothing to do with a country's location in relation to the prime meridian, especially in the modern era. It's a legacy term similar to other broad regions we lump together like the "Orient" and the "Middle East," likely originally defined based on their locations relative to ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The term stuck and now just applies to shared cultural roots and values. That's why Australia (in the eastern hemisphere) is considered a Western nation, whereas Morocco (entirely in the western hemisphere) is not.
I had a girl from England argue with me after she called this girl from Ireland her "UK sister".. she was not pleased to find out Ireland isn't part of the UK. She was dead set on "I'm from England, buddy. I think I know what I'm talking about." She also thought being british was for England and England alone.
Doesn't Istanbul count as being in the Mediterranean region?
Ye?
@@ka9lko9n9 Constantinople*
@@Thomas_Nikopoulos Byzantium* :)
@@Cherryblossom0512 So it's larger than Alexandria
idk cause its more Aegean sea
I live in New Mexico. Our license plates say “New Mexico USA” in order to remind some people that we are in the US. I have local friends who have ordered products over the phone and were told “we only ship within the USA”…
I’m pretty sure a tiny part of Finland is Scandinavian
YEAY YOU ARE CORRECT
@@migueldebritomiguel7261 Åland Islands
Finland has a small part of the Scandinavian peninsula in the far north. But the proper Scandinavian countries are Denmark, Norway and Sweden
@@alfredwaldo6079 Although Denmark is not on the Scandinavian Peninsula :-)
@@alfredwaldo6079 Don't you mean Sweden instead of Finland?
Some of these questions lack context.
My favorite geography question? What country shares the largest land border with France?
downtown Kansas City Missouri 13:00
Mexico part of South America?!
WHAT?
MADNESS!
Well, those countries between Mexico and Colombia used to be North America
But then the continents connected and now they're Central American.
It's all 1 continent: Alaska, USA to Patagonia, Chile.
If you think NYC is the capital of New York, you need to study your U.S. capitals.
You and I may be American, but not everyone is.
Also, the word is "capitols".
Why would anyone who is not American study American state capitals? 🤷♂️
@sturmovik1274 the word is not "capitol", it is "capital". The word with the O refers to the buildings.
@@skorawlodzi You're right. I stand corrected.
@sturmovik1274 you're welcome!
I'm sorry but number 7 is wrong, Istanbul is by far the largest city of the mediterranean region. (The Sea of Marmara is part of the mediterranean sea.)
Also, number 21 is very arbitrary as it depends if you count that as Europe or not...
Two things to point out: the term “sailing the seven seas” doesn’t actually refer to there only being seven seas on earth, but rather the common seas in the known world, basically the phrase didn’t necessarily mean literally going there but rather something like a globetrotter. Also, for Cairo, there’s another one in Illinois.
Which they pronounce “Care-o.”
What do you mean by "Another one in illinois"?
@@gremezahk1 The city of Cairo, Illinois, which is where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi River.
I always took the Seven Seas to refer to the oceans, not seas at all. And it is seven because the Atlantic and Pacific were cosidered two each, North and South.
A few interesting facts about US geography:
Miami Beach is a separate city from Miami. It's located on a barrier island across Biscayne Bay from Miami. Miami is also not to be confused with Miami-Dade County, in which both Miami and Miami Beach are located. Adding to the confusion is the large number of other municipalities within Miami-Dade County that have Miami in their names, such as Miami Gardens, South Miami, Miami Springs, and several more, all of which are technically separate cities.
The Las Vegas Strip is mostly outside of Las Vegas. While some of it is in the city limits, most of it is just outside them in an unincorporated portion of Clark County known as Paradise. But if you get pulled over by a Las Vegas cop outside the city limits, don't be fooled into thinking you can claim the cop was outside of their jurisdiction, as the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police have countywide jurisdiction.
The reason the District of Columbia is referred to as Washington, DC is that it used to be not a single city, but had multiple cities and counties in it, with the city of Washington specifically being the US capital city. But as DC grew, all the separate areas became less and less separate until the whole District was effectively comprised of a single city, and Congress ultimately passed a law officially consolidating it into one. But the name Washington, DC still survives to this day as a relic of when Washington was but one city in the larger District of Columbia.
chances are if you are an american you dont know most of these
A British guy made the video and he seems to have had a lot of bizarre misconceptions before researching the video, and even still didn’t get everything completely right, so…. I know it’s fun and trendy (and the easiest and most overused joke on the internet) to call Americans dumb but we all know stupid people everywhere and let’s face it, Americans basically invented the modern world so let’s give them a little credit for it.
Not a single one of these was new to me, and I bet most of these anyone with a slight knowledge of geography would know.
7:30 you're very wrong here... Portugal is indeed mediterranean... the thing is the term "mediterranean" is not a sistematic term... it's not based on imaginary borders that represent made up systems... it is related to the Mediterranean Basin, a biogeographical region that includes Portugal... geography isn't just about countries and borders you know? France is not a mediterranean country, it just has a mediterranean region, when it comes to biome, climate, landscape and culture, Portugal is way more mediterranean than most of France...
Thanks for another amazing video! I appreciate the effort you put into educating us! 🙏🌍
What If the British Isles (Isle Of Man, UK/GB & IreLand) were 500 miles further away West from mainland Europe 🇮🇲🇬🇧🇮🇪
The Channel Tunnel would have to get a wee bit longer!
A North-South line is NOT vertical. There is no ups and downs in space, north isn't up and south isn't down.
It is on a 2-dimensional map.
Some geography channels do this, but whenever they do a video about Indonesia, they outline the entire Borneo island. Borneo is split with 3 countries, so there are well defined borders.
Yeh kinda lost me on the first one saying the Panama Canal runs "vertically". Elementary school geography tries to cure people of the misperception that north is up. Doing so as an adult on a geography video... There's a reason the Pacific Ocean was referred to early Spanish explorers in Panama as the Southern Sea/Ocean.
There's actually a few deserts in Europe
Not only one
There's one in Poland, for example
Oh yes, just let the average North Korean try driving to ANYWHERE, let alone Finland!
To expand on the Scandinavia fact a bit... Scandinavia was originally thought of as the Island that the Vikings come from. But then it was discovered it was more than just an island, and later discovered that the main "island" was connected to the main land via the far north. If you want to be 100% strict, Scandinavia is just Denmark, and Southern Norway / Sweden.