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A comment on Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Antarctic ice. Parent comment

Re:Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Ant... by m463 on Friday April 03, 2020 @06:53AM (#22767937)
I've always thought a few school subjects should be put off until kids are mature enough to "get" them.

One is history class (much more meaningful when you are old enough to understand human nature) and another is mercator projections.

I always thought Canada was so much bigger than the US but they're about the same size - 3.5m sq miles.

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Re:Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Ant... by acqq on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:33AM (#22768514)
> another is mercator projections.

That's why for centuries the globes were both produced and used:

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

Globes -- since 1492. Every child can understand that.

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Re:Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Ant... by Loughla on Friday April 03, 2020 @09:45AM (#22769064)
One of my memories that always makes me chuckle was an argument I had with my older sibling about this. I always thought Canada was bigger than the US, but only based on how long it takes to get between city centers in the middle part.

Population density was hard for 9 year old me to grasp. But oh, boy, was I certain I was right.

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Re:Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Ant... by ComputerGuru on Friday April 03, 2020 @11:52AM (#22770487)
> I always thought Canada was so much bigger than the US but they're about the same size - 3.5m sq miles.

You can thank Mercator for that. And, these days, Google and Apple for still using it (Google Maps is a globe on PC but still Mercator on iOS. Apple Maps is Mercator only).

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Re:Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Ant... by puranjay on Friday April 03, 2020 @12:47PM (#22771259)
> I always thought Canada was so much bigger than the US but they're about the same size - 3.5m sq miles

That's because the largest state, Alaska, appears like its a part of the Canadian landmass

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Re:Evidence of 90M-year-old rainforest uncovered beneath Ant... by m463 on Saturday April 04, 2020 @01:44AM (#22776439)
I think this shows it best:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/Worlds_a...

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