And newsflash: Contrary to some people's belief, the earth is not flat.
Did you know the Amazon River has 1100 tributaries? Or that you can walk from Gibraltar all the way to either South Africa or Malaysia if you so desire?
It's okay if you didn't. There's a reason why some geography facts are considered useless information.
Curious to hear more trivai from strangers on the internet, Redditor IcelandSushie asked:
"What's a useless geography fact?"
Bodies Of Water
The following factoids tend to sink beneath the surface.
Lava Land
"There was an island originated by volcanic eruption below southern Italy. Different countries argued about which one should have been its rightful owner, but some time later there was another eruption and the island disappeared."
– HumanDrone
"Posiden's Island."
– aibaron
Land O' Lakes
"Canada has the more lakes than every other country combined."
– Potensh
"The United States has more land area than canada, but not if you count the lakes."
"The United States has more land area than Canada even if you include all the lakes. Because the land area of a lake is zero."
– protostar777
Deepest Lake
"Lake Baikal contains approximately 20% of the world's surface freshwater."
– DinoGuy2000
"Holy crap, it would take over three years for the Amazon River (discharge of 6500 cu km/yr) to fill Lake Baikal (volume of 23615 cu km)!"
"And the Amazon River is f'king huge, more discharge than the next seven rivers combined."
– -Captain-Planet-
Head Scratchers
Don't think too hard. You might break your brain from these statistics involving size, direction, and borders.
Same Destination
"If someone were to travel in any of the four cardinal directions from anywhere in Los Algodones, Mexico (due north, due east, due south, or due west), they would cross a U.S. border."
– CharlieChile
French Border
"France shares its longest border with Brazil."
– maple_dip
"Yup. People forget that French Guiana and also the island of Reunion (Indian Ocean) are not mere overseas territories... they are actually France on the same basis that Paris and Bordeaux are France."
– Driver_67
The Biggest State
"Alaska, the largest state in the US, is almost 3 times larger than the second largest state in the US which is Texas."
– Mad_Chemist_
Beyond Our Borders
Were you aware about these interesting tidbits from abroad?
Word
"not exactly a geography fact but some cool wordplay."
"the first three letters of Sweden and Denmark spell Sweden while the remaining letters spell Denmark!"
– soba_todoroki
Thing About Switzerland
"Switzerland is a third world country. Third world simply means not a NATO aligned country (first world) and not a Warsaw pact aligned country (second world). Other neutral countries are also third world - Finland, Austria and Ireland being capitalist examples and Yugoslavia being a communist example."
– mordenty
Barely Exists
"Because Finland is .2% of the global population, and the number of people in the world is always at +/- .2% of the number, there is a chance that Finland doesn't exist."
– teb_22
While these alleged "useless" geography facts will not increase your chances of getting a high-paying job, your now increased awareness will make you the talk of the town.
So the next time you're at a dinner party and you don't know how to start a conversation, try saying: "did you know Alaska is three times larger than Texas?"
Either you'll be frowned upon as a crazy person giving unsolicited information OR you could bring life to that party. It's worth a try, right?
u/secretlyilluminati asked:
What are the pros and cons of where you live?
Here were some of those comparisons.