Alaska is famous for being the biggest state in the U.S., but it holds another, arguably
more impressive distinction. Thanks to its unique geography, Alaska is simultaneously
the easternmost and westernmost state. The fact that it stretches farther West than Hawaii
and California is obvious from looking at a map, but its claim to the East is more surprising.
Eastern and western longitudes are demarcated by the 180th meridian, which falls on the
exact opposite side of the globe from the Prime Meridian passing through Greenwich,
England. The 180th meridian cuts through Alaska’s Aleutian (uh·loo·shuhn) Islands. That means
after watching the sun rise over America’s easternmost point on Semisopochnoi (sem-i-so-poch-noy)
Island, you could take a boat 70 miles to Amatignak (am-uh-TIG-nak) Island and watch
it set over the westernmost spot.
Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy, Editor-in-Chief of Mental Floss. If that hurt your brain, get
ready for 18 more facts that will absolutely warp your sense of geography. Let’s get
started.
Despite occupying opposite sides of the 180th meridian, Amatignak Island and Semisopochnoi
Island aren’t a full day apart. The Aleutian Islands and Hawaii all fall within the Hawaii–Aleutian
Time Zone which doesn’t correspond with neat, longitudinal lines. Rather, it’s marked
by an awkward, jagged line that keeps “western” Islands on western time and “eastern”
islands on eastern time. That’s why Samoa is a full day ahead of American Samoa, even
though they’re less than a hundred miles away from each other. If you have access to
a boat, you can celebrate the planet’s first New Year’s in Samoa and experience one of
the last celebrations in American Samoa.
The clock varies wildly depending on where you are in Russia, which spans 11 time zones.
That means when one side of the country is serving breakfast, the other is sitting down
for dinner. The country has a maximum east-to-west extent of about 5600 miles, which is basically
like driving from Miami to Los Angeles … and then back.
But though Russia is the biggest country on Earth by area doesn’t mean it boasts the
most time zones. That superlative goes to France, which bests Russia with 12. This is
mainly accomplished through their occupied areas scattered around the globe.
China, which is nearly as wide as the contiguous U.S., adheres to a single time zone known
as Beijing Time. This can result in people eating dinner at midnight, or taking school
tests after sundown. The system causes the most confusion in the westernmost region of
Xinjiang (SHIN·jahng), where your ethnicity may determine the time you observe. The Turkic-speaking
Uighurs (WEE·grz) who reside there usually set their clocks two hours behind Beijing
Time, aligning with neighboring Kazakhstan. The Han Chinese who live there are more likely
to live by the government’s clock, which can make coordinating plans a headache.
Daylight Saving Time can make the already-awkward time zone system a nightmare to navigate.
Arizona isn’t wanting for sun in the desert, so the state chooses to bypass Daylight Saving
each year. This becomes especially confusing when you enter the Navajo Nation. Because
the semi-autonomous reservation spans Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, and two of the three
states do save their daylight, the Navajo Nation decided it was just easier to keep
everyone on the same time and go ahead with changing their clocks. But the Hopi reservation,
which falls fully within the Arizona part of the Navajo Nation, didn’t see a need
to be separate from the rest of the state. So for over half of the year, Arizona is home
to a daylight saving donut where the Navajo Nation is an hour ahead of the land inside
and around it.
If you’ve been to Reno, Nevada, you’ve been farther west than Los Angeles. Despite
being 300 miles inland, the biggest little city on Earth is technically 86 miles west
of the coastal California city. My brain is really starting to hurt now.
And if you’ve been to Maine, you weren’t as far north as you might have assumed. It’s
true that Estcourt Station, Maine, is the northernmost community in the state, but compared
to much of Europe it’s not that high on the map. London, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam
are all further North than the Pine Tree State. Mon dieu!
Maine is also farther East than you may have thought. The peninsula of West Quoddy Head
is, ignoring the Alaska technicality, the easternmost point of the U.S. mainland., extending
farther into the Atlantic than any state below it. It comes within just 3154 miles of El
Beddouza (el beh-DOO-sah), Morocco, making Maine the closest state to mainland Africa.
For reference, Florida is around 4000 miles away.
Texas is the second-biggest state in the U.S. behind Alaska, covering a land area of 260,000
some odd miles. Its population in 2022 was 30 million, but that’s nowhere near its
maximum occupancy. If the state was as densely populated as New York City, it’s often stated
it could fit the planet’s entire population of nearing 8 billion people, but I should
say that while this is a popular WTF trivia fact, running the current numbers we’d also
have to take over half of Arkansas. For some perspective, if the world had the same population
density as Houston, it would cover over 2.2 million square miles, which would cover around
two-thirds of the land area of the U.S.
Though Canada beats the United States in size, it doesn’t come close to matching its population.
There are about 40 million people living there, and about 332 million in the US. Canada’s
population just barely exceeds the 37.2 million residents of Tokyo’s greater metro area.
If Canada’s population seems small for such a big country, keep in mind that 60 percent
of it is below Seattle’s latitude. Both Toronto and Montreal—Canada’s biggest
metros—fall below the Washington city. That means huge swaths of the country are largely
uninhabited, and if you’ve ever experienced winter in the far North… you can understand
why.
Even with its impressive size, you may not expect Canada to boast the longest coast on
Earth. You might presume Russia, or perhaps Australia. But the Great White North’s islands
and mainland beaches add up to a record-breaking 151,019 miles of shoreline.
At least that’s the length given by Canada’s national statistical office. Calculating a
number everyone can agree on is impossible thanks to something called the Coastline Paradox.
Measuring coastlines in big units leaves out these divots and bends. Working with smaller
units arguably produces more accurate measurements, but it becomes impractical fast. The intricacies
of a shoreline can be broken down to the molecular level, and at that point the measurements
can appear to approach infinity. So rather than calculating coastlines on a galactic
scale, cartographers agree to work in big units and put away the measuring tape.
Even when measured in miles or kilometers, small countries can boast surprisingly big
coastlines. Thanks to its many fjords and islands, Norway’s coast measures roughly
64,000 miles. That makes it longer than Russia’s, despite the country’s relatively small size.
But Norway’s probably not top of your list for beach vacations. Australia might be, and
if you went on a beach tour of the country, you’d be spoiled for choice—a 2006 analysis
[PDF] found that Australia has 10,685 mainland beaches. If you visited one a day that would
be over 29 years of beach-going.
Australia can also hold its own against our solar system’s heavenly bodies. It stretches
2500 miles from east coast to west coast, making it wider than the moon’s diameter.
In terms of land area, it definitely does NOT beat the moon, but width? Australia takes
the cake.
Foreigners sometimes treat New Zealand and Australia as one in the same, much to the
annoyance of the people who live there. But in addition to their distinct cultures, the
two countries are far apart geographically speaking. There are about a thousand miles
of ocean separating them—a distance big enough to fit an entire second Australia.
The Mercator projection hanging up in countless classrooms has been criticized for putting
an unrealistic emphasis on Europe. It’s the reason many people think Greenland is
comparable in size to Africa, when in reality the continent is about 14 times bigger than
the island. Maps that more accurately present the area look like this.
The popular map is also to blame for literally placing Europe at the center of the world.
Many versions cut off most of Antarctica, which moves Europe to the vertical middle
and pushes the equator about two-thirds of the way down the map. If publishers wanted
to be more accurate, they would put Africa at the center of their maps. It’s the only
continent to cross both the equator and the prime meridian.
That’s enough geographical mind-melting facts for today. Let us know in the comments
which one surprised you the most, or if you’re still thinking about the time zone donut.
Hmm. Now I’m hungry. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.