# Is including "Antarctica" and "World" on this list stupid? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 9, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254 "2013-04-09T20:19:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/1 "2013-04-09T20:19:17Z")
I refer to Wikipedia’s [list of countries and dependencies by area](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area#cite_note-5). Note entries 1 & 3. Does including “World” & “Antarctica” on this list seem stupid to anyone else? Contrarwise, anyone want to explain it? ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/2 "2013-04-09T20:23:30Z")
Including the world gives the total area that the rest add up to in a convenient spot. Including Antarctica is necessary to make the list add up to the world. 😉 But they do look kinda funny under a column headed “Country”. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/3 "2013-04-09T20:28:00Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > Including the world gives the total area that the rest add up to in a convenient spot. Including Antarctica is necessary to make the list add up to the world. 🙂 Assuming you’re not just jesting, why on Earth does the total area of the rest need to add up to a total? Anyway, the actual sovereign states don’t add up to the total area of the world, I’ll bet, or anywhere near it, as the area of the surface area of the world includes the oceans. > [@](#): > > But they do look kinda funny under a column headed “Country”. No, they just look stupid. It’s emblematic of Wikipedia’s basic stupidity: the lack of actual editors with authority and common sense. Why yes, I AM pissed off today, why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![krunen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@krunen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krunen)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/4 "2013-04-09T20:41:36Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I refer to Wikipedia’s [list of countries and dependencies by area](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_area#cite_note-5). Note entries 1 & 3. Does including “World” & “Antarctica” on this list seem stupid to anyone else? Contrarwise, anyone want to explain it? It’s quite common to include some relevant entries in a list to compare against, even if they’re not strictly members. Wikipedia usually puts them in italic to indicate they are special. It’s quite useful. I’d like a similar entry for the EU, maybe I’ll put it in. Of course it also drives strict Platonic realists mad, which is always a plus. ---
**Author:** ![krunen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@krunen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krunen)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/5 "2013-04-09T20:53:56Z")
:mad: And of course I didn’t read the title in the first post, but just guessed the vote question (wrongly) from the truncated poll title. I meant No, not Yes. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/6 "2013-04-09T21:35:01Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Anyway, the actual sovereign states don’t add up to the total area of the world, I’ll bet, or anywhere near it, as the area of the surface area of the world includes the oceans. I’m fairly sure no official entities recognize any countries beneath the ocean, so I don’t see the problem. As for the rest, it’s still of interest as a comparison. Did _you_ know Antarctica is almost as large as Russia? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/7 "2013-04-09T21:45:39Z")
_No_, because they are not included in the ranking. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/8 "2013-04-10T10:48:31Z")
It makes sense so you can see how big a country is as a proportion of the whole world. And if you wanted to know how big Antarctica is, given that it gets relegated to the Mystery Zone at the bottom of most world maps. I must say I was surprised to see that it is bigger than any country in the world other than Russia: I’d assumed it was much smaller than that and only seemed bigger because of the “Greenland effect” of map distortion. I was also surprised to see that there is an argument over whether China or the USA is larger. I’d have guessed China was comfortably bigger. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/9 "2013-04-10T10:58:19Z")
I don’t have a problem with it, especially since “world” and “Antarctica” have no rank #. But they need to explain the area of Antarctica. It’s completely covered with ice and snow, which extend beyond the land, into the ocean. So are they including ice shelves in the total area? ---
**Author:** ![JLRogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce73a5/32.png) [@JLRogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JLRogers)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/10 "2013-04-10T10:58:31Z")
Have you considered waging a lengthy edit war over it? That seems to be the Wiki Way. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/11 "2013-04-10T16:41:53Z")
> [@JLRogers](#): > > Have you considered waging a lengthy edit war over it? That seems to be the Wiki Way. Hell no. I only noticed because, for trivial reasons, I wanted to know what the world’s eight-largest country was (I knew the top seven were Russia, Canada, China, the US, Brazil, and Australia). I only cared because I was grumpy yesterday, and virtually anything could set me off. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/12 "2013-04-10T17:38:26Z")
World - Stupid Antarctica - Not Stupid ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/13 "2013-04-10T18:10:23Z")
People who are interested in the relative size of countries are likely to be interested in the relative size of land masses as well, so it makes sense to me to put it all in one table. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/14 "2013-04-10T20:00:15Z")
Antarctica is completely defensible, World is superfluous. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/15 "2013-04-10T20:16:59Z")
No. “World” gives a point of reference (the “land area” column, I mean), and “Antarctica” is an interesting information. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/16 "2013-04-10T20:23:04Z")
By the way, I’m surprised by a lot of rankings (Argentina and Bolivia being that large, Algeria being larger than Congo, Egypt larger than Turkey, etc…) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/17 "2013-04-10T20:26:19Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > No. “World” gives a point of reference (the “land area” column, I mean), and “Antarctica” is an interesting information. Would you also want to include Afro-Eurasia, Eurasia, Asia, Africa, Europe, America, North America, South America, and Central America? ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/18 "2013-04-10T20:49:49Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > It makes sense so you can see how big a country is as a proportion of the whole world. I voted that including it was stupid, but then 10 seconds later I decided this was a good reason to include it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/19 "2013-04-10T20:50:11Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Would you also want to include Afro-Eurasia, Eurasia, Asia, Africa, Europe, America, North America, South America, and Central America? Personally wouldn’t mind that myself. But I find the “world” information quite informative, so if I want to make a quick calculation of would %age of landmass a certain country is, I could do it without having to dig for more stats. Absolutely defensible and, in my opinion, useful info. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254/20 "2013-04-10T21:10:52Z")
Skald, I am one of your admirers, but this… nah. Leave off. There are better fights and more interesting polls. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-including-antarctica-and-world-on-this-list-stupid/655254.md?page=2)