# Your geographical misconceptions **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2020, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294 "2020-12-30T20:58:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/181 "2021-01-03T10:17:02Z")
Continuing on the “more East/west” theme. London is due east of Casablanca, Madrid, Dakar. It’s almost due North of Valencia. Florida is due West of almost all the S American Pacific coast. Interestingly the eastern tip of Long Island is due north to part of the Atlantic coast of South America, admittedly fairly south where the continent narrows but it does show the orientation of the Eastern seaboard of North America is East-West. The Ural mountain range, one of the traditional borders between Europe and Asia is east of the Persian gulf, and almost its due north of the Pakistan Iran border. Vladivostok is East of Korea and almost due north of Hiroshima ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/182 "2021-01-03T14:38:14Z")
Perhaps this is a differing of opinion of the meaning of due, but in no world is Florida “due west” of any part of South America. It may be west of parts of South America, but not due west. That would imply that Florida is in the South Pacific ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/183 "2021-01-03T14:39:59Z")
Florida is west of ALMOST ALL of South America, not just small parts. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/184 "2021-01-03T14:41:13Z")
Florida is farther west of South America in terms of longitude. It is not west of South America, as @Paintcharge notes. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/185 "2021-01-03T14:43:05Z")
Fair enough. However I will note that if Florida was an island just north of Panama it COULD in fact be due west of South America without being in the South Pacific! But that, or course, is a nitpick. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/186 "2021-01-03T14:47:26Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > But that, or course, is a nitpick. It’s what we do here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/187 "2021-01-03T14:51:22Z")
Hence my objection to the phrase “due west.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/188 "2021-01-03T14:57:03Z")
Back in the cold war era, flights from western countries were generally prohibited from flying over Soviet or Chinese air space. This led to some flights heading off in what appeared to be the wrong direction. If you were flying from Paris to Tokyo, for example, your flight would take off and head for Anchorage. Then you’d fly the second half of your flight from Anchorage to Tokyo. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/189 "2021-01-03T16:42:58Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Perhaps this is a differing of opinion of the meaning of due In every reference site that I just looked up, the meaning of ‘due north/east/south/west’ means ‘directly to the north/east/south/west’. London is due east of Bristol. London is farther east than Casablanca, Madrid, and Dakar. Yes, London is almost due north of Valencia. Almost all of Ireland is farther north than London. No part of Ireland is due north of London. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/190 "2021-01-03T17:22:15Z")
An accurate objection. I fucked up there, in my defence was rechecking my recollections on GoogleMaps and composing the post at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/191 "2021-01-04T05:08:05Z")
For the longest time I could not understand why Japan divided itself into East and West and not North and South like it should! You have to look at the two major regions (Kansai, West and Kanto, East) where you can see that the difference in latitude is much smaller than the longitude. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/192 "2021-01-04T05:26:40Z")
As a small boy, I had an atlas that I loved to read, and I had a set of plastic states that I loved to assemble. As a result I had a very good map of the United States in my head. But my lack of knowledge of how the world worked got in my way. At some point I learned about the Civil War and secession. I was convinced that someone had gotten a large saw, cut out the Confederacy “along the lines,” and floated it out to the middle of the Atlantic somewhere. I had no trouble visualizing what both pieces of the country would look like without the other, and I acted it out with my states on occasion. Then when the war was over and the Confederates lost, they floated it back and…glued it into place? I’m not sure. Not really a geographical misconception, I suppose, but geography-adjacent. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/193 "2021-01-04T14:26:46Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > Masked wrestlers were often, though not always, billed as being from Parts Unknown. And some were billed as “weight unknown” which lead one announcer(probably Jessie “The Body” Ventura) to quip, “How can their weight be unknown? They can’t get them to jump on a scale in the locker room?” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/194 "2021-01-04T15:01:04Z")
Although I once went to a bush league boxing match where for one of the fights it was obvious the intended opponent had no-showed. So they promoter found some schlub in the parking lot who for $50 (at most) agreed to be beaten up by a real boxer. We soon saw the guy had no boxing skills, no muscles, was overweight, had no stamina, etc. Just your typical couch potato 25yo suburban Midwesterner. This guy’s, name, origin, and weight were all unknown. Because nobody bothered to check. He was willing to stand in the ring and that was good enough. The ref stopped the fight halfway through the second round when the victim’s defense of his face finally failed. He’d yet to throw a punch. It was appalling to watch; the crowd started booing early and not at the schlub. The poor guy must’ve hurt something fierce tomorrow, but almost certainly suffered no lasting damage. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/195 "2021-01-04T15:54:01Z")
Not so much a misconception as a confusion – As fast as the world changed between roughly 1950 and 1970, in my early school days in the late 60s/early 70s there were in our textbooks and in the school library atlases and on the school walls, maps with representations of just about every permutation of the first, postwar, then, postcolonial world. It was a bit annoying for me having to look up when did Place A turn into Place B or cease to exist or become split. And of course Og help the pupils if some ancient teacher still thinks it’s the Gold Coast or Transjordan. Re: Canadian Southernness – myself just looked it up, my northernmost CONUS stop, Coeur D’Alene ID, is north of anywhere I’ve been in the Great White as well. Mercator maps are ineffective for determining whether A is actually “closer to” B anywhere beyond very short distances outside the tropics, but are good for visualizing what is further N/S/E/W on the grid. > [@Dinoguy](#): > > I’ve read that a lot of people don’t realize New Mexico is actually a state in the U.S. New Mexico magazine has a section of stories about the misconception. To the point the vehicle license plate explicitly says “New Mexico, U.S.A.” > [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Because the geographical and official CET do not match. Frome the article, it seems a bunch of the more Western countries switched from Greenwich Time to Berlin Time in the early 40s for kinda obvious causes, but then never bothered to “liberate” the clock. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/196 "2021-01-04T16:33:25Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > But my lack of knowledge of how the world worked got in my way. At some point I learned about the Civil War and secession. I was convinced that someone had gotten a large saw, cut out the Confederacy “along the lines,” and floated it out to the middle of the Atlantic somewhere. I had no trouble visualizing what both pieces of the country would look like without the other, and I acted it out with my states on occasion. Then when the war was over and the Confederates lost, they floated it back and…glued it into place? I’m not sure. Well, [Bugs Bunny was certainly no help](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiTM2HQ0g98&ab_channel=fukTroll)! ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/197 "2021-01-04T16:35:11Z")
Oh, that’s very funny! I doubt I saw that as we didn’t have a TV until I was older, but who knows. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/198 "2021-01-04T16:40:10Z")
BB also stole the locks off the Panama Canal – right under **Colibri** ’s nose, yet! ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/199 "2021-01-04T18:26:03Z")
Another confusion, not misconception - I have a hard time remembering where Malaysia ends and Indonesia starts. I know that Malaysia is on the Malay peninsula (cause I is smart that way), but for some reason I think Malaysia includes far more islands that are actually Indonesia. Micronesia, of course, is a mythical place. I have a map of Europe that was printed in Germany in 1942 or 1943. It’s… interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2021, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/200 "2021-01-04T18:33:17Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > I have a map of Europe that was printed in Germany in 1942 or 1943. It’s… interesting. I would like to see that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=11)