# 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:** 55
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1084 "2026-10-15T16:15:48Z")
Before we moved to New England, I didn’t appreciate how big Maine was. I thought of the New England states as all being pretty tiny, and even having vacationed at Boothbay/Camden/Acadia/Bar Harbor, I didn’t realize how much further North and West the state extended. Especially when you leave the I-95 corridor and the roads get smaller and smaller. Quite the experience driving on two lane winding roads where people are going 65 with trailers or campers. I had lived and worked in central and western Kansas before, and some of those roads were scary enough, but Maine was a different experience because of the mountains. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1085 "2026-10-15T16:35:45Z")
I think most people in Britain would know France is to the South, with a chunk going East of Britain, with Ireland being to the West… Even if they did need to mumble ‘Never Eat Shredded Wheat’ under their breath to get the directions right. People may be tempted to think France is a bit further East than it is, say if they were asked to draw a map- and may well put the channel crossing point a bit closer to the middle of France than fairly near the Northern tip as it is- but as going to France cos it’s South where it’s warmer with more wine is an extremely common activity, we generally associate it with South. Incidentally, the Channel Tunnel pretty much stopped being called ‘the chunnel’ this side of the pond in the late '90s, early 2000s, after a brief spell of overexcitement for a trendy new word. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1086 "2026-10-15T16:56:39Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > tend to think of France as being to the west of Great Britain. Maybe because the Chunnel runs mostly east-to-west, as does the ferry between Dover and Calais. Did you mean “to the _east_ of Great Britain”? Otherwise I find it hard to understand your point about the tunnel and the ferry. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1087 "2026-10-15T17:02:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’ve never encountered that notion, and it seems bizarre to me. That’s because I should have said “east,” rather than “west.” My bad there. Fortunately **Filbert** seems to have gotten what I was getting at. The idea is that in one’s mental map, it seems that Britain and France feel more “side by side” than they actually are. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1088 "2026-10-15T17:04:15Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > France is also an answer to the question, since it’s in the North, East and West hemispheres just in Metropolitan France and French Guiana is in the South hemisphere. French Guiana is in the northern hemisphere. However Mayotte and Réunion are both in the southern hemisphere and are overseas départements, so France still counts. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1089 "2026-10-15T17:21:31Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > I didn’t appreciate how big Maine was. Fort Kent is way TF up there. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1090 "2026-10-15T17:25:28Z")
The “for some reason” is the Gulf Stream current, more formally termed the **[Atlantic meridional overturning circulation - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturning_circulation)**. Anthropogenic Global Warming (“AGW”) is well on the way to shutting that down. When it does peter out, the climate on North America and Europe at every latitude will be pretty similar to each other. So climate-wise, central France will resemble Minnesota and Britain will resemble Labrador. What we don’t know is what AGW will do to that climate meanwhile. But the betting is Minnesota and labrador get a little warmer while France and Britain get a LOT colder. ETA: Fixed undefined acronym. Thanks to @JKellyMap just below. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1091 "2026-10-15T17:27:43Z")
Seems Ohio has a surfeit of Sandusky’s and a shortage of originality / creativity. Or did back then when all this stuff was named. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1092 "2026-10-15T17:28:39Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > AGW Took me a minute. “Anthropogenic global warming.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1093 "2026-10-15T17:35:33Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > For a British one that tends to throw people, the island of Great Britain is much more tilted than it’s generally perceived; Edinburgh, in the East of Scotland, is almost due North of Cardiff in Wales, on the West coast. So much so that, to my surprise, I have recently discovered by chance that Inverness is closer to anywhere in North and Central America than London is. So this is the case for not just Canada, Alaska and Hawaii, but Mexico, the rest of continental USA (even New England and Florida) and most of the Caribbean. It’s not until you get down to around the borders of Brazil that you find places that are closer to London than Inverness. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1094 "2026-10-15T18:24:59Z")
Some maps seem to show a mythical pair of large islands a fair distance to the SW of Australia, but these islands are frequently left off world maps. Which is as it should be: we need to have somewhere to hide when the rest of the world turns to shit, so please pretend that these islands do not exist. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1095 "2026-10-15T18:41:50Z")
A LOT of that is failure to understand a spherical planet vs a flat map. The flat maps we’re all used to seeing e.g. Mercator, etc., are really pretty awful at depicting the reality of the positions of the land on Earth. In Google Maps you can push the “Layers” tile at lower left, choose the “More” choice at far right, then in the popup check the “Globe view” box at lower left. Then zoom your globe out until you can see the whole Atlantic and the land surrounding it. Easy enough to tiln & rotate until you’ve got a good look at how the continents and British Isles are draped on the sphere. From Inverness, a “straight” line just about runs right down the Canadian and US eastern seaboard. Which is totally not what a flat map would lead you to believe. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1096 "2026-10-15T18:44:41Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > A LOT of that is failure to understand a spherical planet vs a flat map. It’s not a “failure to understand”, I fully understand all that but I just hadn’t looked properly. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1097 "2026-10-15T18:49:57Z")
That did not come out as politely as I meant it Sorry. What I meant was what you said. “Until someone sees with their own eyes just how badly flat maps map the continents, it’s easy to be stuck in the rut of drawing mental lines on your mental flat map of the world and being surprised by various geo-trivia claims that are accurate.” My apologies for sounding jerkish. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1098 "2026-10-15T18:52:19Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Catawba, Ohio is 115 miles SSW of Catawba Island. And Catawba Island isn’t even an island At one time, apparently Catawba Island- which is on a peninsula- was actually an island. So says Wiki. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1099 "2026-10-15T19:12:54Z")
The spit of land that makes it an actual peninsula is only 200 ft wide. It was an island at some point in time. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1100 "2026-10-15T19:29:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > At one time, apparently Catawba Island- which is on a peninsula- was actually an island. So says Wiki. I’m going to guess that this is a result of glacial rebound. That is, the land that was under the ice 10,000 years ago is very slowly rising up to its isostatic elevation. The same thing has happened to islands in Scandinavia, for example. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1101 "2026-10-15T19:36:33Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Some maps seem to show a mythical pair of large islands a fair distance to the SW of Australia Some have another pair of islands to the SE of Australia as well. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2026, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1102 "2026-10-15T19:51:16Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Some have another pair of islands to the SE of Australia as well. I wouldn’t go there, Ever since they got tariffed, the penguins have been mightily upset. ---
**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:** [October 15, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294/1103 "2026-10-15T22:18:24Z")
I have long had difficulty with “left” and “right”, though, oddly, I have a keen sense of direction and can often find my way back to that one place we went that one time. I guess it must be a word problem. Also, “in the Pacific” always evokes “to the west” to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=54) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-geographical-misconceptions/929294.md?page=56)