# 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:** 20
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/382 "2021-01-25T01:21:45Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > > [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > > > When I’d drive California to Colorado, when I’d get to Albuquerque I’d mistakingly keep thinking [only an hour and a half to Raton](https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Albuquerque,+NM/Raton,+NM/@35.9380302,-106.6583905,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x87220addd309837b:0xc0d3f8ceb8d9f6fd!2m2!1d-106.650422!2d35.0843859!1m5!1m1!1s0x8710f043b7f65153:0xa09ff54108aa82d0!2m2!1d-104.4391532!2d36.9033581!3e0). > > You should have taken [a left turn at Albukoikee](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8TUwHTfOOU). Which, in fact, is what I would do in that situation. You end up going through Santa Fe and Española and Taos and Questa, and it takes about the same amount of time to get to the Colorado border. Of course, in winter, it might a bit slower, but if the weather is decent, it is a much nicer drive. There is just something unappealing about going through Las Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/383 "2021-01-25T01:38:14Z")
I had a guest checking out once who asked me if I knew the best way to Albuquerque. I thought then said “Bugs Bunny was always saying he should have turned left”. As my boss froze in terror\* the guest started laughing. We agreed I -10 was probably the best way until he could turn off. - He was always afraid I’d something like that to the wrong guest. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/384 "2021-01-25T03:04:45Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > There is just something unappealing about going through Las Vegas. Possibly it’s the lack of casinos. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/385 "2021-01-25T10:32:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I attended the University of Southern California. One of the famous USCs. > > I nearly committed a major _faux pax_ in my first few days in USAF when I encountered a _very_ senior officer who’d graduated from the University of South Carolina. Which I, being a hard-core West Coast person, had never even heard of. My dad got his bachelor’s at USC (Southern Cal). My wife got her B.S. and M.S. from USC (South Carolina), which is where I got my doctorate, which is where and how we met. The various sportsball teams for the western USC are the Trojans, and those of the southern USC are the Gamecocks, or just the 'Cocks for short. If their teams ever played one another, it would set up a great headline: either ‘Trojans Contain Cocks’ or ‘Trojans _Can’t_ Contain Cocks’ depending on the outcome. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/386 "2021-01-25T11:14:18Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I struggle with how weird time zones are. So I loved Munro’s map of what the world would look like if countries were where their time zones said they were. > [@dtilque](#): > > He should do one for state-provincial timezones in North America. They’re not quite as distorted as countries, but still not well aligned with the nominal zones. He should _really_ do one for the Pacific basin - the time zones there are truly something to behold. My stepsister was on Tonga for a few years, and the time zone maps of that part of the world made my head spin. > [@panache45](#): > > I’m in the Cleveland area, and my financial advisor is in Atlanta. She keeps thinking I’m in the Central time zone, even though I’m farther east than she is. That was a misconception I had when I was in college. I was in Hartford, and a friend of mine was at Oberlin, in Ohio. I assumed she was in Central time, and she had to correct me on this point several times before it sunk in. Midwest should be in a different time zone from the Northeast, right? And I knew Chicago was on Central time; we used to change planes there on the way to Wichita (the nearest big city to where my Kansas relatives lived). And of course the South **east** v. Mid **west** , which of them should be in which time zone, right? Wrong! Take Alabama and Indiana (please 🙂 ). Indiana’s basically due north of Alabama. Alabama’s entirely in the Central time zone (as is the piece of FL panhandle due south of Alabama). But aside from a couple of tiny corners of the state, Indiana’s in the Eastern time zone. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > About 90% of the whining we get at each DST changeover date is not because of DST; it’s because you’re already in the wrong timezone and the DST change just makes it screamingly obvious instead of only very obvious. Indeed! Speaking of Indiana, it used to stay on standard time throughout the year, but then some idiot governor who’d been in the Bush administration (of course) pushed DST through the state legislature. The effect of DST is to effectively push you one time zone east. So if you’re already one time zone east of where you should be, now for half the year you’re **two** time zones east of where you should be. And then, like you say, it goes from obvious to screamingly obvious that you’re in the wrong time zone. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/387 "2021-01-25T13:04:22Z")
In a continent-sized integrated economy, there are always going to be “wrong” time zones, officially or unofficially. There’s always a core and a periphery, and the schedules in the periphery are going to depend at least in part on what’s happening in the core. The same forces that push the eastern/central boundary west of where it “should” be would just push schedules earlier in that region if the boundary was in the correct spot. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/388 "2021-01-25T14:05:52Z")
I thought for sure I’d see this one early on in the thread. I don’t have a whole lot of geographical misconceptions: I loved looking at maps when I was a kid, and while I grew up in the DC area, we had relatives in Kansas and L.A. who we visited periodically. On top of that, I went to college in New England and did a hitchhiking trip around New England one summer, and several years later, with a free summer in between years of grad school, I took a car trip in basically a big loop around the country. But until I was in my 50s sometime, I would have told you that the northernmost point of the 48 contiguous states was the northern tip of Maine. That’s actually how it looks on most U.S. maps: they curve the latitude lines so that, say, the 40th parallel will be higher up on the page at each end of the country than it is in the middle, so northern Maine is closer to the top of the page than any other part of the contiguous 48, which creates the illusion that Maine is furthest north. How I found that it’s not, actually took away two misconceptions for the price of one. Some trivia game I was playing asked which of the 48 contiguous states had the most northerly point in it. Maine, of course, right? Nope, it was _Minnesota!_ So I reached for my handy atlas, and found that (a) Maine doesn’t reach as far north as latitude 49° which is the northern boundary west of Lake Superior (or so I thought!) of the contiguous 48, and (b) one little bit of Minnesota actually extends north of the 49° parallel. Neither of which I’d known until that trivia question sent me to my atlas. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/389 "2021-01-25T14:09:02Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > In a continent-sized integrated economy, there are always going to be “wrong” time zones, officially or unofficially. There’s always a core and a periphery, and the schedules in the periphery are going to depend at least in part on what’s happening in the core. If that was the driver, I’d have certainly thought that Indiana’s economy would be more closely linked to immediately adjacent Chicago than to points east. Similarly, Alabama’s to Atlanta. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/390 "2021-01-25T15:56:02Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Speaking of Indiana, it used to stay on standard time throughout the year My understanding was that they left it up to the counties. Some counties would use EDT while others would stay on EST, and if you were not familiar with which was which, you might not make it to the bank on time. Arizona stays on MST all year around, which can be kind of weird in the summer – except, the Navajo Nation that occupies a big chunk of the north goes to MDT. Really, the only part of north America that is wholly on standard time is Saskatchewan – except for the town of Lloydminster, which straddles the border with Alberta and so goes to daylight time on the SK side to stay in sync with the AB side. ---
**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 25, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/391 "2021-01-25T16:47:34Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > So I reached for my handy atlas, and found that (a) Maine doesn’t reach as far north as latitude 49° which is the northern boundary west of Lake Superior (or so I thought!) of the contiguous 48, and (b) one little bit of Minnesota actually extends north of the 49° parallel. Plus, you have to go through Canada to get to it. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/392 "2021-01-25T17:02:33Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Plus, you have to go through Canada to get to it. Only if you don’t use a boat or plane though. If you _must_ drive, then yes you must go through Canada. Sadly, the US lacks true exclaves in the lower 48. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/393 "2021-01-25T19:27:17Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Sadly, the US lacks true exclaves in the lower 48. No, there is one. The farthest west piece of land in Kentucky is completely surrounded by Missouri and Tennessee. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/394 "2021-01-25T19:35:19Z")
You refer to the Kentucky Bend of course, which is only a state exclave (though a very interesting one that I hope to visit). The US lacks national exclaves (save for Alaska and Hawaii). ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/395 "2021-01-25T20:36:04Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > That’s actually how it looks on most U.S. maps: they curve the latitude lines so that, say, the 40th parallel will be higher up on the page at each end of the country than it is in the middle, so northern Maine is closer to the top of the page than any other part of the contiguous 48, which creates the illusion that Maine is furthest north. It’s not the curving of the latitude lines that causes this misperception. The curving is the result of the map projection, but that doesn’t cause the problem. What causes the problem is that the map is subtly rotated so that the direction straight up in the center of the map is not true north. True north is actually off to the left by several degrees. That allows a somewhat larger map to fit into the same rectangle. But people are used to north being straight up, so they unconsiously assume that that’s what’s shown on the map. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/396 "2021-01-26T00:06:09Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Arizona stays on MST all year around, which can be kind of weird in the summer – except, the Navajo Nation that occupies a big chunk of the north goes to MDT. My father claimed once that the reason why the Navajo change time and the rest of Arizona doesn’t is that “unlike the Arizona State Legislature the Navajos are intelligent and know how to change time on a clock”. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/397 "2021-01-26T00:20:24Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’d have certainly thought that Indiana’s economy would be more closely linked to immediately adjacent Chicago than to points east. In fact, the northeast corner of Indiana is always on Central Time to match Chicago. As is the southeast “pointy part”. Add to that a history of stubborn Hoosiers opposed to “Fast Time” (DST), and the state’s a mess. It can be tricky figuring out what time it is if you’re crossing county lines (and it’s changed every few years). We’ve learned to just ask a local. > **[Time in Indiana?](http://blobthescientist.blogspot.com/2017/03/time-in-indiana.html)** > > Indiana is 10% bigger than Ireland and has about the same population: 6.6m IN 6.3m IE. Ireland is traditionally divided into 32 counties - 2... The one advantage is… if you came in late to a TV show, there’s a good chance that there’s a station nearby that’s an hour behind, and you can watch it all over again… no DVR needed! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/398 "2021-01-26T00:26:02Z")
> [@Moris](#): > > Now if I can only memorize the order of their capitals… John Finnemore put together a “Capitals of Europe” song - Ooh, here’s a version with lyrics, and flags! (Sing along!) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/w8Oxg9zPUBE/maxresdefault.jpg "John Finnemore's Capitals of Europe Song - Sing-along version, with Flags") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Oxg9zPUBE) … > [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > My father “studied at Oxford” - he took a one-week course there I went to a tiny college in Michigan, and it was impossible to explain where it was… a friend came up with “Oh, I went to school just outside the twin cities.” “Oh, Minneapolis/St. Paul?” “No, Osseo/Pittsford!” ---
**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:** [January 26, 2021, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/399 "2021-01-26T00:40:57Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > You refer to the Kentucky Bend of course, which is only a state exclave (though a very interesting one that I hope to visit). I visited the Kentucky Bend in 2017, after watching the solar eclipse from Hopkinsville. The eclipse was much more impressive. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/400 "2021-01-26T00:58:16Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > This article shows “the most accurate world map ever made” (using a newish technique for translatong spheres). It shows the correct orientation of the Americas, which is surprising. Europe and Asia seem fairly correct, but Africa and the Americas seem way off. Siberia is further south than the Congo according to that map. It also seems to have Casablanca, Morocco as the northernmost city in the world 😅 ETA: I didn’t realize how far east the UK is. I’ve always pictured it being due north of Spain rather than north of France. ---
**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 26, 2021, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/401 "2021-01-26T01:21:18Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Europe and Asia seem fairly correct, but Africa and the Americas seem way off. Siberia is further south than the Congo according to that map. It also seems to have Casablanca, Morocco as the northernmost city in the world 😅 North is not up in that map. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=21)