5 Things About Geography You’re Wrong About

[@Swamp72]

The most shocking part of this video is finding out that people think sand dunes are hills covered in sand

[@antshrike8238]

Totally! I’ve never heard anyone say anything suggesting confusion about that. I literally thought everyone knew they were shifting piles of sand, regardless of the underlying terrain. That’s like thinking that ice fields and ice sheets (big glaciers) only cover flat areas because their surfaces are largely flat.

[@jackyoh971]

Like really who believes that?

[@wrc5557]

I'm doubt anyone thinks this! literally the first time I've ever heard this even suggested and surely anyone with the sense to know the Sahara is a desert knows that sand dunes are made of sand.....the clue is in the name!!

[@ohdearism]

@@jackyoh971 People believe that the earth is flat. They exist.

[@sylnz97]

are those people in the room with us rn?

[@bioLarzen]

A France-related fun fact: most people with a degree of knowledge about European geography "know" that France and Netherlands are not neighbours (Belgium comes in between). Well, you can win an easy bet against such people by claiming France and Netherlands are in fact land neighbors - we just have to go to a different continent, namely North America, where, there is the island of Saint Martin / Sint Marteen, half of which is an overseas territory of France and the other half belongs to the Kingdom of the Netherlands - with a nice land border between them. There is your French-Dutch border. The only pair of European countries with a shared land border outside Europe.

[@dxruling]

That's occupied territories not the actual territories.

[@beurksman]

​@@dxruling If they can defend it it's theirs

[@DarrylWPerry1789]

The longest French border is shared with Brazil!

[@DarrylWPerry1789]

and the longest domestic flight in the world is from Paris to Tahiti!

[@whyshouldwecare3267]

JHTT

[@KenFullman]

Everyone knows the Amazon is the longest river in the world, but we're still in denile.

[@kevinforgione3938]

“De-Nile” isn’t just a river 😂

[@pltc71]

Google is in denile

[@b_ks]

My sister is the queen of de Nile.

[@KenFullman]

@@b_ks Was she the one that had to walk backwards? Nethertities.

[@misterramon7447]

"groo-aaa-aann" Dad jokes have made a comeback.

[@BrOckSams0n]

1:00 "only a portion is covered with sand, between 15 and 25%" ... that's like 700,000 square miles. I'd say that picturing this absolutely massive (staggeringly massive) landmark when thinking of the Sahara is perfectly reasonable.

[@BrOckSams0n]

additionally a lot that "isn't sand" is rocky sand and then a lot more is sandy rock... so yeah. Sahara = Sand

[@PathkeeperOfficial]

Damn he pushed some buttons with this one 😂

[@matsv201]

​@@BrOckSams0neven in the "rocky"parts, thete is still plenty of sands around and also often dunes between the rocky planes. Those dunes are typically fairly small, but still very sandy. As soon as you build anything all thr sand pools up around it.

[@avbeast]

I spent 4 days with my woman, 2 guides, and 2 camels in the Sahara. It seemed pretty darn sandy to me!

[@svargyle]

You can easily see the actual size of countries by using Google maps and zooming way out. It becomes a 3-D sphere. You can also look at a globe.

[@b_ks]

Every household needs a globe.

[@misterramon7447]

@@b_ks And according to Zero Mostel...A Maid.

[@chiuwong4057]

the problem with most physical globe is that the viewing of the southern hemisphere is less favorable, less so the Antartica. So unless a globe can be flipped around freely, the shape and size Antartica is still less well known.

[@durwardsaar6000]

LOL

[@kathleenmccrory9883]

Globes are awesome.

[@BruceBoyde]

The Mercator projection thing that really stunned me is that Madagascar is actually almost 2.5 times larger than Great Britain.

[@JamesDavy2009]

That's bigger than only two states of my homeland.

[@liamtornqvist]

@@JamesDavy2009assume you’re Australian? 🙈

[@JamesDavy2009]

@@liamtornqvist Bingo.

[@JakeSmith-jy1kx]

GB is tiny. The whole UK is smaller than 11 US states, including four of the five I’ve lived in. 15 states are larger than Great Britain. There’s 31 US states larger than England. London to Edinburgh is under 400 miles, but Houston, Texas to El Paso, Texas is 745 miles, almost twice as far. US interstate 5 in California is over 800 miles long. Even Las Vegas, Nevada to Reno, Nevada is further than London to Edinburgh.

[@DreamteamCarlo]

I always like to look at Brazil and Greenland. They seem similar on the map but Brazil is about 4x Greenland's size..

[@h84gabor6]

respect for starting with what's in the thumbnail

[@BradGryphonn]

5:35 With respect to Norway's coastline, Slartibartfast, when designing it, probably didn't expect it to be one of the longest coastlines in the world. He just had a thing about fjords.

[@douglaspealing5608]

I've always wondered if he ended up doing the southwest coast of New Zealand too, maybe just in his evenings. They're just as fiddly, but a much smaller project.

[@mlw5665]

Please tell me SlartiBartFest is real, and the mascot is beyond my imagination.

[@mccormyke]

Slartinbast was especially interested in the tiny creeks which he called...fjiodian slips

[@BradGryphonn]

@@douglaspealing5608 Perhaps after dinner whilst having a cup of tea.

[@mrthingy9072]

Upvote for the Douglas Adams reference.

[@JesseJoyce-cj2xg]

A lot of people don’t seem to know that a small island off the coast of Newfoundland is controlled by France, but if that describes you, well, it no longer does. Now you know.

[@felixbarry1838]

St-Pierre! I worked with a guy from there a while ago, one of the funkiest french accent I've ever heard, a mix of mainland france with a touch of Newfie english, great people

[@nunyabiznez666]

Fun fact, in some parts of the Sahara the sand depth is 300ft deep 😳 I can only imagine what's buried under it, you know.....since it was a lush forest area at one point

[@sudazima]

most sand areas used to be lakes since its the lower lying areas that fill up with sand first.

[@alecogden12345]

Coal lol

[@davidwood9966]

They can’t use it for concrete cos it isn’t jagged enough at like the granular level. That’s a shame.

[@loddude5706]

@@davidwood9966 - Like inventing 'dehydrated water' . . . what do you mix it with?

[@matthewmckinney5387]

Lmao, there about 5 to 10 kilometers of dirt under your feet 😮

[@travesty-studios]

You can tell that some maps really mess up sizes when you learn that the length from top to bottom of Africa is similar to the width Russia.

[@janelleg597]

All maps "mess up" sizes because you cannot accurately portray a 3d object in 2d space

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:30 - Chapter 1 - The sahara isn't actually very sandy 2:50 - Chapter 2 - Maps are very, very warped 5:10 - Chapter 3 - Coastlines are not what you think 7:20 - Chapter 4 - The longest river might not be the Nile 9:15 - Chapter 5 - There are many continent splitters

[@MarkShockley]

*Nile

[@richdiddens4059]

A few more things need mentioning. 1- The Earth is not a sphere. It's an oblate spheroid being 42km shorter than wide. 2- There is still a fair amount of debate as to where the line between Asia and Europe is and some debate as to where the division between North and South America actually is. A small part of Panama might be considered south of the division. 3- While 7 is the most recognized number of continents I've seen it claimed anywhere between 4 and 9. One that is sometimes added is Oceania.

[@JamesDavy2009]

@@richdiddens4059 There's also Zealandia with the only parts of it above sea level is the country of New Zealand. Some circles have stated that the true mouth of the Nile is the Strait of Gibraltar.

[@neekfenwick]

you made it further through than I did :)

[@HeliosBeats]

thanks

[@LivingWithTheCoopers]

When I was in the Sahara in Morocco, it was mainly like a gravel car park, but with loads of fossils because it was an ancient sea bed.

[@brentpoikey1154]

Same with Qatar. I lived there for a year and a half and my family back home would ask me how the sand was, and a gravel car park was basically how I explained to them what it was. Dust was more of an issue than the rare sandstorms (haboobs) that came over from Saudi where the 'Empty Quarter' is, which is actually an INSANE sand dune desert. I think it's the largest sand dune desert in the world but might be wrong. Either way, you don't want to end up in the Empty Quarter on accident. Also, sand would have been much easier on my shoes than the flat rock covered by gravel. That shit tears up shoes like you're walking on razorblades. And literally every single time it rained, it flooded, and flooded quickly.

[@joegrey9807]

There are some sandy bits down near the border with Algeria. But the best 'dunescapes' I've seen are in Mauritania - around Chinguetti.

[@yestfmf]

Imagine drowning in a desert.

[@justagerman140]

​@@brentpoikey1154 ha boobs

[@gwcrispi]

We should be glad the majority of the Sahara is not sand dunes. The sand worms would prevent crossing it...

[@JeffUmstead]

Shai Hulud

[@QBCPerdition]

Not if you know how to walk arhythmically

[@bobpourri9647]

Isn't Thumper a rabbit?

[@Just-thoughts]

Africans would have used the worms to fight colonizers which means France would be poor today 😂😂

[@janelleg597]

​@@Just-thoughtsFrance would be just fine, actually

[@setra23]

Norway having the second longest coast line would make Slartibartfast proud

[@joelb8653]

Badly underrated comment.

[@dwaynecunningham2164]

​@@joelb8653OMG YES

[@dwaynecunningham2164]

Nice crinkly edges.

[@Justin.Martyr]

*Set23; Just another TrumpVoter!!!!!*

[@FistandFootMartialArts]

Justin.Martyr. Chump? Really? You're gonna go with that. Whatevs...

[@glstka5710]

7:06 Norway coastline is due to its many fjords. The chjevys don't contribute to it.

[@cyanophage4351]

Haha 😂 yeah came to comments to make the same point.

[@jonrolfson1686]

Neither Bjenzes, Volksjwagjens, Volvjos, Dacijas, Sjeats, Sjaabs, nor even Fjiats get a proper look in. Only Fjords.

[@katfayegarrett3872]

😂😂😂❤

[@earthling_parth]

Slartibartfast at it again!

[@misterramon7447]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!! Dad Jokes and Puns!!! It truly IS the End Times!!!!

[@dcvariousvids8082]

I was correct on the Norway answer. After all, Slartibartfast liked all the crinkly bits.

[@darlenefraser3022]

YES! This is the only reason why I knew the answer to that one! 😅

[@loddude5706]

Thinks: Coast road tour of Norway with Ewan & Charlie in a Ford Prefect - would it make it? (Skinny tyres, twiddly bits, king pin wear, ice, snow & vacuum-driven windscreen wipers? : )

[@gcewing]

Or Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent in a Ford Prefect.

[@earthling_parth]

Here I am, the brain size of a planet, and you want to talk about fjords?!

[@itsa-itsagames]

Legend has it that Simon Whistler hasnt been allowed out of that room for the laat decade 😅

[@NZKiwi87]

lol! You’d think he’d get a more comfortable chair 😂

[@grahamfisher5436]

He's the one who's kept locked in the basement

[@squee222]

5:17 Your graphics department seems to forget that the Canadian Archipelago, and North West Passage are part of Canada - and that the "thousands of islands" you mentioned need to be included in their graphics.

[@ASlickNamedPimpback]

To be fair... if you've ever had to colour those islands in back in elementary school you'd know its basically impossibly annoying

[@DoktorAJ]

I'm more concerned about the fact that Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and part of Quebec have apparently seceded from Canada in that map.

[@mennomateo]

All land south of the st Lawrence seaway and all islands are missed

[@aaronbannerman4354]

and P.E.I. ... So that would total 4 or the 10 provinces, plus part of another and half of 2 territories missing.

[@shawnr6117]

Someone didn't do their job properly.

[@geradkavanagh8240]

I encountered the coastline edge problem numerous times while working for a cadastral surveyor. Just defining the median high tide mark could be an absolute headache in areas where the nearest tidal gauges were a long way away. Add to that both erosion and accretion events along shorelines and before you knew it, nothing would match previous survey plans and areas of land allotments along coastal areas.

[@Pushing_Pixels]

Why are high tides used to define the coast, instead of low tide marks? Doesn't the shore include the areas flooded by tides?

[@geradkavanagh8240]

@@Pushing_Pixels Median high tide mark defines the accepted boundary between what is ocean/sea and what is land. Shoreline fluctuates over time depending on erosion or accretion along the shoreline and thus affects the amount (square metres/square feet) of land described on a land title bordering the sea.

[@wocookie2277]

I’ve been in many deserts, from the Arctic, to Egypt, and the empty 1/4. In the UAE. As well the Mediterranean area, and Afghanistan. All deserts are mostly rock. Only the empty 1/4, and a stretch outside Cairo, had the sand dunes we expect of a desert.

[@JamesDavy2009]

Technically sand is a collection of at least trillions of little rocks, mostly quartz.

[@target844]

Most deserts are not rock, the most common surface material of deserts is ice. Antarctica is the largest desert on Earth. There is a reason the video useed hot desert.

[@wocookie2277]

@ I’ve been to an Arctic desert as well in Alert Canada. That is the best example of my statement, nothing but rock under that ice. And in a frozen desert you really respect static electricity 😉

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

And Iceland spans the continental plates of North America and Europe. That's why it is so volcanic. The plates are still drifting apart.

[@sunset-life]

You can literally walk from europe to america

[@robneff7084]

@@sunset-life Not literally. Iceland is not part of the continental shelf of either continent. There isn't one good well-accepted definition of a continent, as alluded to in the video. But Iceland is traditionally considered an island not belonging to either continent.

[@chadp363]

Why did the map of Canada's coast line leave the four eastern provences out? I understand 2 are islands, but still, they, and two provences attached to the rest of the country were not highlighted

[@bid84]

They belong to India now 🇮🇳

[@hosermcmoose]

Let's be honest, most Canadians forget about New Brunswick too.

[@tarazieminek1947]

Maybe it's an older map - Newfoundland didn't join Canada until 1949.

[@neskire]

They also left out all of the islands north of Nunavut. Shoddy work, I'd say.

[@bradfilippone7064]

Only Prince Edward Island is entirely an island. Many people forget that Newfoundland and Labrador is mostly mainland because they forget the Labrador part of it.

[@tanjredshirt]

As an Alaskan, I utterly LOATHE Mercator projection maps. It's surprising how much it malforms the outline of our state.

[@toweypat]

I'm starting to dislike it, too.

[@bobthecomputerguy]

It maintains the shapes of things zoomed in though. Like buildings and road intersections. idvux.wordpress.com/2007/06/06/mercator-vs-well-not-mercator-platte-carre/

[@CastorRabbit]

We get fucked even harder. Australia is basically as large as the entire united states in reality

[@SkunkApe407]

Now imagine being a Land Surveyor.😂

[@teun911]

Americans trying not to mention their state or NOT view things from their geographical perspective (literally impossible)

[@bioLarzen]

Accurately measurng coastlines is not only tricky because of the coastline paradox - but also because of the constantly changing sea levels.

[@SkunkApe407]

The Coastline Paradox is far less of a problem when using US Survey Feet, instead of metric. That's because, when measuring with the US Survey Foot, values are collected in feet, tenths, hundredths, and thousandths of a foot. Smaller units create more accurate measurements.

[@EndertheWeek]

@@SkunkApe407 So centimeters, millimeters, nanometers etc. etc. don't exist?

[@SkunkApe407]

@@EndertheWeek yes, they do, but US Survey Feet offer smaller measurements than all of those, in a practical application. Nobody said anything about them not existing, only that the US Survey Foot allows for far more precise measurements. If you had any background in Geomatics, you'd know that. Any engineer who has used both systems of measure will tell you that SAE offers finer, more precise measurements.

[@SkunkApe407]

@@EndertheWeek just for reference, one millimeter is just over three hundredths of a foot. I can split your millimeter with my US Survey Feet, therefore making my US Survey Feet more precise than your millimeter.

[@paulanergraz]

@@SkunkApe407 and then i go to micrometer. and if you split it up again i go the nano so what do you want to tell us? Espacialy as the length of a US Survey Feet is defined as 1200/3937 meters so it's based on meters. and the U.S. survey foot is phased out at least by NOAA and NIST and changed to international feet. but that's something you need to know when you talk about measurements and have a background in geomatics ;-) oceanservice.noaa.gov/geodesy/international-foot.html

[@AlexVictorianus]

1:10 if somebody saw The English Patient, you know what this rocky part of Sahara looks like

[@Dangic23]

I still remember when this guy had 300 KZbin channels

[@A0A4ful]

By conservative estimates!

[@antshrike8238]

Does he not anymore?

[@5Stringslinger]

​@@antshrike8238Not after the things he did.

[@antshrike8238]

@@5Stringslinger I must have missed something? What did he do? Something stupid, offensive, and foolish?

[@ashb7846]

@@antshrike8238 He turned me into a newt!

[@m.dwaynesteckley4832]

France also extends its border into North America, specifically off the coast of Canada's island of Newfoundland. This little French possession, the result of treaty ending the Seven Year War, is Saint-Pierre and Miquelon: an archipelago of eight islands off the southwestern coast of Newfoundland. It was established for fishing rights of the then abundant Grand Banks.

[@Tjalve70]

I think the only continent France ISN'T in, is Asia. So I guess the French should argue for Eurasia being a continent, so they can claim they are on ALL continents.

[@robneff7084]

@@Tjalve70 Well, there's also Antarctica...

[@thibault973]

@@robneff7084 France do claim part of Antartica as part of its territory :)

[@pooryorick831]

The Sauara is still growing. It claims a few more acres every year. Fun fact. 🙂👍🏻☮️

[@FinrodFelagundTheFair]

Not so fun fact maybe?

[@toweypat]

Yes, and many African countries are planting a line of trees to stop its advance. A battle for the ages!

[@sirrathersplendid4825]

I’ve heard the opposite. Increased CO2 levels are making the Sahel more liveable to plants. There’s far more undergrowth south of the Sahara than there used to be. Depends really on the definition of ‘desert’.

[@jackhuenger7274]

This was interesting and informative. When he started talking about Continental divisions I was hoping it was going to be about things like the North American Continental divide. It would be interesting to see what things are like that divide for other continents.

[@RetNemmoc555]

I've never heard Mercator accented on the first syllable, even in the UK.

[@RCassinello]

Whistler has picked up all sorts of weird pronunciations over the years. At least he's dropped that god-awful transatlantic accent he was putting on for a while that made him sound like a blend between Tony Blackburn and Loyd Grossman.

[@ErwinPommel]

Fact boi doesn't know how to say a lot of words. It's a shame that's his only job.

[@ryanalex106]

As a pub quiz host, the coastline question is absolutely going in my next quiz. Subbed - good stuff

[@roywhitworth]

Pretty sure I was taught that the Amazon river was the longest river in the 1990s

[@bigbirdmusic8199]

That would be the Nile. As a matter of fact, the Nile being the longest river in the world is generally the only thing people actually know about it, other than being a river in Africa.

[@CastorRabbit]

@@bigbirdmusic8199 I remember being taught the Amazon was the longest river in the 90's too... I'm in Australia

[@EagleOxford]

Largest by volume I believe. Probably taught garbage in the 80's

[@mbc1994]

Sure you don't remember wrong, like another comment here, I think it was taught it was the "biggest" (like volume of water flow)

[@maxwellabbushi1650]

Amazon = largest water flow for a river, Nile = longest

[@KaiHenningsen]

Also, the Sahara was significantly smaller in Roman times: that area was where the Roman Empire grew a lot of its grain.There are quite a number of ruins of Roman cities there.

[@tobyray8700]

*as joke…. Simon tells us that the earth is actually flat, with a straight face 😂

[@jennyanydots2389]

In his personal time Simon actually is a flat earther, anti vaxer and Q anon supporter. The dude is totally out of his gord... bonkers... off his rocker. He's not even from the UK, the accent is fake, he's actually from Gary Indiana.

[@TommyChmelko]

I like all types of scientific aspects, geology, astrology, all different types, but not biology. That’s a joke. At least they transitioned it to be one.

[@daegudiva]

This was fantastic content!!! Well done.

[@eleanorsky1]

Well... I can agree that the Sahara is not all sand dunes. But I have ridden camels there and talked with oasis farmers and collected some of the extremely fine sand there- some is red and some white. So that vision is not totally off. It's sort of like imagining America as the land of cowboys and bison

[@boxsterman77]

But he gave an actual percentage of what part is covered with sand.

[@podcastuldefilosofie]

respect for whoever did the focus on the camera

[@edwinwhitaker5679]

The coastline of Norway wasn't carved by the sea. The reason why the coastline is so large is due to glaciers.

[@AnthonyKimbrell-y1e]

You always make tough topics feel manageable!

[@appleid3151]

Who thought that sand dunes were sand covered hills? Like really did anyone actually think this?

[@Gigemhorns2011]

Literally have never heard anyone say this. Dude in the video is insane

[@thomasautonomousanonymous]

Iceland is split by N America and Europe There are technically 4 continents...AfriEurAsia, America, Australia, Antarctica

[@markduffy5773]

How long is Britain's coastline? How long is the ruler?

[@Kyrelel]

He is 1.78m, apparently.

[@mormacil]

King Charles is 1.78 m

[@UntakenNick]

As the delta x (your ruler) approaches zero, the measured length tends to the actual length, not to infinity.

[@mormacil]

@@UntakenNick It will never reach the actual length in physical reality, thus without an end it is infinite.

[@UntakenNick]

@@mormacil As the number of rulers increases, their length decreases. You're adding an increasingly larger number of segments of an increasingly shorter length, the convergence of the resulting measure is the actual length of the curve. I want to believe you're trolling, it's the base of differential calculus.

[@danortmembers3243]

Thank you very much for addressing the issue of variance in measuring coastlines! This is such a pain in the ass to explain to non-geographically inclined individuals.

[@dsclayton4016]

Any day we can bring fractals into the discussion is a good day.

[@glfitz001]

This guy reminds me of Issac Asimov. When I was young I was astounded at his breadth of knowledge. When I was finally working I read something he wrote in my field, geography, and I was astounded at how shallow it was.

[@robneff7084]

To be fair, Asimov wasn't known as a geologist or geographer. I just looked him up Wikipedia and it lists a half dozen science fields he wrote articles in, and geography was not one of them.

[@bob_._.]

France also has land in North America: Saint-Pierre and Miquelon islands, just off the Newfoundland coast, are a self-governing region of France. And Russia used to extend also onto North America until the sale of Alaska to the USA.

[@hosermcmoose]

France also has numerous islands in the Caribbean, which is usually lumped in with North America. This is in addition to the territories in South America (French Guiana), off the coast of African (like Reunion) mentioned in this video. France also has several pacific islands. Put quite simply, France has little bits strewn all over the planet, all legacies of the colonial days.

[@Tjalve70]

@@hosermcmoose France is the country hat stretches across the most time zones. I believe it is 13 time zones. While Russia has "only" 11.

[@djharris90]

I always love these videos. I ways learn so much.

[@Jay-er1oh]

Fun fact, you left out 4 of Canadas Provinces in the graphic. Pretty easy thing to figure out but on par with the content

[@AIGeographyTeacher]

Your content is so engaging! Thanks for providing such valuable and interesting geography lessons. 🌍❤

[@J3scribe]

Europe and Asia are on the same tectonic plate, so are one continent. North and South America are on separate tectonic plates. They are separated by the Caribbean Plate, which hosts much of Central America. One might argue that Central America is the smallest continent. Fun fact: Far eastern Russia, and a goodly part of Japan, are on the North American plate.

[@sirnirvikingur]

And half of Iceland sits also on the N American plate.

[@Pirate_Knight27]

Only if you define continents by tectonic plates, which is problematic. There are a couple tectonic plates that are just ocean and definitely don't count as continents. Also, Africa would be split between the African plate and the Somali plate, but no one would consider those 2 separate continents.

[@thabzmad7265]

​@@Pirate_Knight27Gotta draw the line somewhere 😅😅😅

[@shenhue7041]

Why is europe its own continent anyway?

[@Pirate_Knight27]

@@shenhue7041 It makes more sense then making all 20 tectonic plates a separate continent.

[@jh2519]

You can look at a globe instead of a map to see the size differences in countries.

[@Craig-wp3pz]

Course, fjords become fashionable, and I get an award for Norway..... 🏆 I just like a good fjord, gives a continent a nice baroque feel.... ....... -By Slartibartfast Possibly 👀 📖 📕

[@Drakehilt]

Simon be like, "The Sahara doesn't look like the sandy desert that you think it does" *continues to mostly show images of sandy desert*

[@montecorbit8280]

At 9:10 Output of the Amazon.... I was told that several of the top 10 rivers in world by volume of output or tributaries to the Amazon....so there is a decent chance that some of those next seven are tributaries!

[@Spacemongerr]

Two of them are, number 6 and 7, Rio Negro and Rio Madeira

[@Giova104]

Much like the coastline paradox, measuring a river length depends on how you do it and how precise you are

[@DarrylWPerry1789]

Can't believe you didn't mention Iceland sitting on the North American & Eurasian plates!

[@Endlessvoidsutidos]

thanks Simon nice to finally see some standing up for Trans Continental rights

[@bioLarzen]

You made the explanation for why Norway has the second largest coastline unnecessarily complicated IMHO - the truth is much more simple: Norway's coastline is so huge becuase it has by far the highest number if islands in the world, at a staggering 320,000. Just for comparison: Sweden, the country with the second most islands, has a "mere" 267,000 (both rounded figures). There's your reason, coastline paradox or not. (Third on the list is Finland, proving how tremedously jagged the coastline of Scandinavia is. Fun fact: Indonesia, the country maybe most of us would guess as the country with the most islands, is only #8 on the list, with a puny 17,500 islands... Yep, Norway has almost 20 times as many islands as Indonesia has.)

[@christopherx7428]

I see that this is claimed on the wikipedia site while also saying that an older figure was some 55.000. This is quite a difference and Norway does not have the shallow waters of both Finland and Sweden. I wonder how they measured this higher number? A Google search för 320.249 Øyer gives no results.

[@bioLarzen]

@@christopherx7428 Good question. For Finland I can imagine that the islands in all those lakes were also included - Finland has an awful lot of lakes too - for they are islands too, after all... But Norway doesn't have nearly as many of those, and would most certainly not account for this huge discrepancy.

[@christopherx7428]

@@bioLarzen The same probably goes for Sweden as well, plenty of lakes and many islands in them Like you say, not that many in Norway. The long coastline seems obvious, but I must say I doubt the number of islands.

[@bioLarzen]

@@christopherx7428 Let's count them :D :D :D Jokes aside, yeah, that's a figure I kept coming across, and not just on Wiki. I've been making goegraphy quizzes for quite some time, I've been using a lot of sources - but, sure, I don't know where all these sources get their numbers from, I just learned which ones to trust and which ones not. 320 thousand does sound hard to believe indeed... but I kept coming accross similar figures, that's why I believe it. Maybe wrongly.

[@guycore5478]

The most significant aspect of geography is that Simon is the ultimate expression of a sand dune and can be everywhere all at once.

[@ericbananas6419]

Who tf thinks sand dunes are just hills covered in sand?

[@EagleOxford]

Oh somebody does I'm sure, they move though so yeah, that is foolish.

[@gcewing]

Of course they're not. Otherwise how would the sandworms get through them?

[@CamMcCulls-kx6zk]

Define hills. If there are mountains under the sea and there is an archipelago under Antarctica, would the base rock under the sand count as hills if it was undulating? The point was really that hills do not cause the sand dunes, not that there aren't hills under the sand dunes.

[@ulrikesextro4187]

If you want to read something really confusing please feel free to check out how complicated the border situation is for the small town consisting of the Dutch Baarle-Nassau and the Belgian Baarle-Hertog. Some houses are divided by a border into a Belgian and a Dutch territory.

[@Tjalve70]

I have heard a guy legally moved his house from Belgium to Netherlands (or vice versa), simply by making a door on a different wall, and blocking up his old door.

[@robneff7084]

There's a town in northern Maine/Canada that is also like that. As I recall they had an issue with their library, which straddles the border. It was fine until rules were tightened following 9/11.

[@dbblues.9168]

Simon has definitely cloned himself. The way he pronounced Mur-Kahtoor was a cloning glitch. Bro is hosting 22 channels simultaneously

[@gosnooky]

Coastlines being fractal in nature does not imply they are infinite because there is the lower limit to length as it can meaningfully be measured - the Planck Length.

[@veruspatri]

Interesting fact about Nova Scotia: a province in the Maritimes, of eastern Canada, has an approximate coastline of around 13,000 km (8,000+ miles) long. While the entire US east coast is only 3330 km (2069 miles) long.

[@marloelefant7500]

I have read Lawrence of Arabia's book in which he describes the desert in great detail. He specifically mentions this myth that the desert is full of sand.

[@Crioten]

Starfishes love learning

[@RobertStewart-i3m]

Now that you've confused me, you can do 5 more side projects explaining what you just said. More map smack please!

[@Moohasha1]

Ok, look....I know the Brits and Americans get into it all the time over different pronunciations, but I can never forgive you for how you pronounced Mercator.

[@shamelessstacib7351]

I was thinking the same thing

[@DanDeebster]

As a Brit myself, he says all kinds of words weird, and mer-KAY-tur is how everyone else says it. For someone whose job is saying words, he often comes out with bizarre versions of them! It's normally a sign of being well read, but you'd think someone would let him know that that's not what the script says.

[@QBCPerdition]

​@DanDeebster They do...in fact, this commentor just did...and by making the comment, he has helped the almighty algorithm promote this video. While I don't dive into the conspiracy that Simon intentionally mispronounced in order to drive engagement, I do believe that he doesn't care that he mispronounced words, since doing so helps him and fixing it is a huge hassle.

[@DanDeebster]

@@QBCPerdition I was thinking of people who are there at the time of filming - it's not much use us complaining about it after the fact. Another option is that he's filming outside the UK, and people don't want to correct him as they assume his pronunciation is standard for Britain.

[@QBCPerdition]

@@DanDeebster he films alone and lives in Prague with his family.

[@pooryorick831]

Great! I love learning new geography! Yay!🙂👍🏻😁✌🏻

[@mirthenary]

And we all know James May is the discoverer of the true source of the Nike

[@jerryodell1168]

" Good Video ": Ref. Sahara There is sand as stated in this video. But as stated not that much. The USS Canberra CAG-2 went to North Africa in either 1962 or 1963. I was a sailor on her. Liberty took me on a tour that shocked me. I was so patterned to think of miles of sand and few people trudging to get somewhere. This might be true in some areas, however, as a whole the lands within a few miles of the coast, the mountains, and in certain other places are very much like Arizona, New Mexico, West Texas, and Southern California with huge numbers of people, houses, stores, businesses, manufacturing buildings, huge areas for camels, farms, roads, and more. Grant it, thing are different, but definitely not the image as seen in most movies. People live and work there.

[@wit-wielder]

E is not actually the capital of England

[@kellyphx]

That's right. It's the Pound Sterling.

[@conradbo1]

I have learned a lot from this video

[@derrickthewhite1]

The most annoying thing about deserts is that english doesn't really have the vocabulary to talk about them. There was an interesting moment when I realized that I lived in a desert, I just hadn't realized it because common depictions of what a desert is are so bad.

[@Bacopa68]

It kinda means "deserted". Wild thing is that "jungle" borrowed into English from Hindustani dialects. In those dialects "jungle" meant "few inhabitants". Also, that last point about continents. Herodotus was skeptical that there were three continents. He thought there was a Eurasiaafrica. Aristotle thought there had to be a balance in the continents and that there had to be something like the Americas and a giant Australia-Antarctica hybrid. Weider is that going as far back as the Odyssey, there was speculation about great lands far past the known world. The shade of Agamemnon prophecies that Odysseus will grow restless and take his family to lands past the Pillars,

[@toweypat]

To show how true that is, the largest desert in the world is Antarctica.

[@_theBigGOAT]

Well that’s more so from not knowing the definition or seeing examples.

[@shaneeslick]

Deserts are designated by a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation

[@TRexTeaParty]

That’s weird actually cause between the US and Australia the English language covers a lot of desert.

[@user-en7qh9jv4b]

You should do one about Colorado Geography.

[@MarkShockley]

10:03 What's up with that map of Russia??? All the cities are in the wrong locations, and Yekaterinburg is horribly misspelled. Yrkatemburg??

[@traildude7538]

I remember in geography 101 in university that one common way to measure shorelines was to use the mean average tide line.

[@Tjalve70]

That may be true. But the issue raised here is the length of the ruler.

[@Harris83]

Shouldn't this be on "Places"? 0.o?

[@Manny-id3cz]

He has so many channels he’s starting to get confused

[@glandersonbooper9342]

Does it even matter at this point? 😂

[@agneteht]

Since we are talking about geography of Chile it is actually quite interesting (even to us chileans) to think that we are tricontinrntal and trioceanic since the chile includes easter Idland and parts of Antarctica, and borders on the atlantic in the eastern magallanic region, the sea of antarctica, and the pacific.

[@steverempel8584]

A coastline isn't infinitely long. It has a true length, that you will never be able to reach by measuring. The smaller the measuring stick, the bigger the value, it will keep up going infinitely up to this true length, which requires an infinitely small measuring stick to measure. It's one of those cases of infinite growth, where there's a limit that you are growing towards, but will never reach.

[@zurielsss]

And there is the tide and water levels to mess up your coastline too. But yes it's not indefinitely long

[@shaneeslick]

Rather than "Straigh Edge Measuring Device" using a "trundle wheel" would be a more consitently acurate way Not "indefinitely long", but "ever changing" would be a good descriptor as to why getting an acurate measurement even at the tiniest level is basically impossible

[@bigpicturethinking5620]

The “plank coast”

[@EagleOxford]

I get your point, but what we could do is proclaim a measurement Higher than any particular coastline could possibly be. An estimated mile long coastline is Never going to be measured and accepted as being a million miles long. Certainly it could be said that there is a "cap" on this type of measuring, at which point it becomes useless and even absurd. For any practical use anyway.

[@Xanderbelle]

Yes. Norway and its Fords !

[@Rhylek]

fun geography fact: colorado is actually NOT a rectangle! its a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon and has 697 sides. this is because while mapping out the original borders for the state, the surveyors got lost along the way many times creating uneven border lines

[@ShiftySqvirrel]

Many languages, like my own, make a distinction between continents(landmasses) and parts of the world, what we call "verdsdelar/verdensdeler". The latter is less about landmasses and more about culture and politics. Though I do think we could stand to add a few more to that category, as we still talk about Asia as a single entity which doesn't work culturally or politically. We should probably divide it into East, South and Middle eastern, with some regions between as transitional perhaps.

[@TomFarrell-p9z]

The advantage of the Mercator projection is that a rumb line is a straight line. No one knowledgeable ever claimed you could compare land areas using it. The only way to do that is to use a globe.

[@bobthecomputerguy]

Also if you zoom in on a square building, whether it's far north in Alaska or on the equator, it will remain square. The plate carree projection will have it turn into a rectangle. Which is why Google Maps originally used Mercator.

[@SkunkApe407]

As a Land Surveyor, I just want to tell you that a globe is not the only way to accurately perform landmass comparisons. We have this little thing called computer modeling now. I can measure any two landmasses, render them in 3D within a virtual environment, and literally transpose one landmass onto another. As an added aside, using both computer modeling and Real Time Kinematics(GPS) actually allows land surveyors to map and see the curvature of the Earth. The curvature is roughly 9 feet of curve per linear mile. I've actually "cured" a few flatearthers by showing them the curvature of our planet in real time. The look of shock and realization that overcomes them is hilarious, every time.

[@glfitz001]

There are such things as equal area projections.

[@TomFarrell-p9z]

@@glfitz001 Equal Area Projections distort other features which are often more important to the map user, whether or not they were previously aware of it. Back when equal area became a fad, National Geographic developed a great projection that made their wall map useless for distinguishing countries in Europe. Not sure what you would want to use a political equal area projection map for, but it's not what the folks who used the previous wall map needed.

[@mikekilborn5283]

I wish this list had included Everest - only the tallest mountain when measured from sea level, but not the tallest when measured from the center of the earth.

[@ArchangelXCI]

I’m surprised the continent debate didn’t include the mostly sunken continent of Zealandia, stretching from modern day Aotearoa New Zealand up through New Caledonia

[@burieddreamer]

For the coastline paradox, just use the same unit for different places, then average out their ranking.

[@LordSluggo]

About map projections: I feel like I must be the only person in the past 100 years to have ever owned an actual globe

[@HeidiBuss-pd8cw]

I had one. When I was a college Freshman I learned about the different types of maps in a Geography 101 class.

[@brendant19]

Or use google earth apparently. Also, one thing that's always left out in the discussion of projections is their function. Simon didn't go hard at Mercator for being colonialist or anything, but others have and that's straight BS. It's a map used for navigation. If you use it for that purpose, it will get you where you're going and give you a fairly accurate representation of the shape of the place you're in. It's actually a very impressive map, but it's not intended, as most maps haven't been until recently, to merely be an accurate picture of the world.

[@shaneeslick]

no you're not the only one, so at least 2 people have never owned a Globe

[@andydavis8437]

@@shaneeslick Yes, and at school we had globes. I still use digital globes a lot.

[@TheCatLady65]

Used for navigation by *white* people, for colonial purposes.

[@RCassinello]

The Amazon / Nile rivalry isn't a new thing. We were taught at school 40 years ago that which was the longest was debatable.

[@TastyScotch]

The globe stuff is nuts. The fact that Mecca is somehow northeast of NYC boggles my mind 😅

[@quokkaw]

But it's not. Mecca is at 21°25′21″N 39°49′24″E, while NYC is at 40.7127°N 74.0059°W. So Mecca is south of NYC, and by a good margin.

[@TastyScotch]

@@quokkaw but to pray to mecca from NYC, you face northeast 😱🤷‍♂️

[@Spacemongerr]

Yes, its because the Earth is a sphere. Same reason why the most direct route from Chicago to Thailand is to go almost straight north from Chicago

[@Tjalve70]

@@TastyScotch That doesn't mean Mecca is NE of NYC. It just means shortest the way TO Mecca from NYC is NE.

[@HeidiBuss-pd8cw]

Fascinating. I love learning new things

[@donnabarnes7879]

You left Newfoundland off when you circled Canada. Living in Newfoundland, this drives me crazy. It happens all the time.

[@jbrown7403]

Steve Martin totally caught me by surprise! 😉

[@samanjj]

Based on the last segment, If I understand it right Kazakhstan is transcontinental, Turkey is transcontinental, but Iran which is more west than Kazakhstan isn’t. Eurasia makes more sense since Europe is more of a political area.

[@mormacil]

Of all the divides, the Eurasian border is indeed the most arbitrary.

[@Pushing_Pixels]

@@mormacil Is it the Ural River, mountains, or both?

[@mormacil]

@@Pushing_Pixels It's arbitrary

[@eekee6034]

They're all arbitrary and politically-motivated, I mean part of Turkey is African, but yeah, the Eurasian border is the longest arbitrary border.

[@Tjalve70]

@@mormacil If you think the Eurasian border is the most arbitrary, can you then explain to me where the border between North and South Americas is? And where the border between Asia and Oceania is? The border between Europe and Asia is as follows: It follows the watershed of the Ural mountains. Then it follows the Ural river. Then it follows the watershed of the Caucasus. And finally it follows the Bosporus and Dardanelles. That isn't very arbitrary.

[@vinnybaggins]

1. Being Brazilian, the info that Amazon is the longest river was new at all for me. I was taught that even as a child at school. I think most brazilians know that. 2. Who on earth would think that dunes are hills covered by sand?!

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

James May already proved that the Nile River starts long before lake Victoria and doesn't meet the tidal ocean until Portugal, making it the longest river with the largest pools on earth

[@sudazima]

for most of the year the amazon is certainly longer, only part time could the nile be longer since many stream fill up during rain season.

[@hurricanefury439]

and Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond were there too.

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

@@hurricanefury439 true true, it's a team effort afterall.

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

@@sudazima you need to get out more. I'm making a reference to the BBC series Top Gear and one of their Special episodes. Since you are unable to recognize a joke when it's presented to you even in a simple manner I will explain it to you. The "source" is a spring in the mountains south of Lake Victoria. The two "Really big pools" are Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea. It's not serious and not meant to be taken as such. You don't need to attempt to be correct about everything. It makes you sound like an unpleasant person to be around. It's also okay to be kinda close.

[@JamesDavy2009]

@@MikkellTheImmortal According to their lingo, a total Muppet.

[@arturass3896]

The countries with flat terrain are easily to measure, but the countries with mountains, if measuring slopes, are actually much larger than the surface (base of the mountains) area. Theoretically, it makes countries with mountains much larger, e.g. Slovakia.

[@Educated2Extinction]

I was disappointed to find out that I wasn't wrong about these things.

[@tiggrr1968]

The lesson to be learned here. Is to read more about the world we live in.