Portland, Oregon, where it rarely snows, is about 130 miles further north than Toronto, and over 200 miles further north than Boston. On France’s southern Mediterranean coast, Cannes, the sunny summer playground of the rich, which is sometimes incorrectly called ‘tropical’, is about 10 miles further north than Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Cape Town, and Sydney are each thousands of miles apart and are known for having unusually pleasant year-round climates, and they are all almost identical distances from the Equator. San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia are both known for mild and fast-changing climates, and they are identical distances from the Equator. Estcourt Station with a population of 4 is in the northernmost tip of Maine, and it sounds like it’s probably snowed-in all winter, and yet London, England is still almost 300 miles further north. The 49th Parallel, which makes up the long and straight US/Canada border in the west, is about 120 miles north of Estcourt Station, Maine. Glasgow is about 280 miles north of London. Keep going another 250 miles north for Stockholm, another 370 miles north to reach Reykjavik, and 413 miles north to reach Hammerfest, Norway, which is almost 5,000 miles north of the Equator. The entire country of England, with over 50 million residents, is a wee bit smaller than the state of Louisiana. If you combine England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, then together they are a bit smaller than the deceivingly large state of Michigan. France is about 30% larger than the state of California. Crescent City, California is about 15 miles south of the Oregon border, but it’s about 10 miles further north than Newport, Rhode Island. In other words, you can still be in California and be further north than coastal Rhode Island. Madrid, with summers so blazing hot that most people take a long break from work every afternoon, is about 10 miles further north than Salt Lake City, Utah. About two-thirds of Africa is in the Northern Hemisphere. Rome, which is located in the center of Italy, is located at the exact same latitude as Chicago. Tehran, Iran, with its scorching summers, is located on the exact same latitude as relatively mild Tokyo, Japan. About 90% of the world’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere. The incredibly remote island of Tahiti is slightly east of Anchorage, Alaska, which is slightly east of Hawaii. In other words, Hawaii is closer to the International Dateline than Tahiti. If you are trying to get a handle on the climate of India it helps to know its northern border is the same as the northern border of Mexico in Tijuana, and the southern border is about the same as the southern border of Panama. Sunny and just-barely-tropical Rio de Janeiro is about 25 miles further from the equator than Hong Kong. Scientists recently discovered that Florida and Hudson Bay in Canada are getting about 1 inch closer every 36 years.

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From BootsnAll Travel Network

 About 90% of the world’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere.

Look at a map, and you may SEE why..DUH..

Speaking for most of the rest of the world, what's a 'mile' and what's an 'inch'?

I know a 'mile' is 1.61 km and an 'inch' is 2.54 cm but what are they really?

Speaking for most of the rest of the world, what's a 'mile' and what's an 'inch'?

I know a 'mile' is 1.61 km and an 'inch' is 2.54 cm but what are they really?

These are stupid units from measure from the British system, a system of measures so bad that the people who invented them won't use them anymore.

There are 12 inches in a foot and 5280 feet in a mile. Why these particular numbers and their particular values??!!? Who knows? Who cares? In high school, the U.S. (the last country in the world still using the British system, and getting it wrong on some values like the gallon) was going through a period of enlightenment. We were starting to use the metric system, albeit not wholeheartedly. We were given physics problems, half in British measures, half in metric. For the British units, I converted to metric, did the calculations, then converted back to British. It was easier than staying with British units all the way through. Now, as Americans go from milli-intelligent to micro-intelligent to nano-intelligent, we don't even bother to try to use the metric system for fear that the not wasting our brain cells on stupid measures might free them up to do some real thinking. We can't have that!!

How about the USA gallon, compared to the UK gallon..UK gallon is 1 liter larger..

Speaking for most of the rest of the world, what's a 'mile' and what's an 'inch'?

I know a 'mile' is 1.61 km and an 'inch' is 2.54 cm but what are they really?

What they are really is a FUBAR.

: user999  May 13, 2008, 07:44:26 AM

Speaking for most of the rest of the world, what's a 'mile' and what's an 'inch'?

I know a 'mile' is 1.61 km and an 'inch' is 2.54 cm but what are they really?

What they are really is a FUBAR.

Thanks for the Mars orbiter reference. Excellent point. As Neil has said though at the planetarium, there was actually one significant success in that story. I know it's hard to find success in such a major balls up. This was soon after the start of NASA's smaller, faster, cheaper campaign. Since this orbiter was only $125 megabucks, rather than the prior gigabuck per mission cost, the loss of one orbiter did not result in a loss of the entire mission, which included multiple launches over a period of time. There was a lost gigabuck space craft some years earlier. I seem to remember that being a Mars mission as well. At least this was only $125M for the stupidity of someone using the British system. When they put John Glen in space, mostly just to see how a 70 yr old reacts to space, that was $100M/day. When it was two days late landing due to weather, that cost $200M. Just trying to keep perspective.

It's not the $125M that was the big deal here. It was why they lost the $125M. What idiot would use British measures for a real scientific application?

Speaking for most of the rest of the world, what's a 'mile' and what's an 'inch'?

I know a 'mile' is 1.61 km and an 'inch' is 2.54 cm but what are they really?

Hmm.  They are inch based off of human anatomy & the mile based on a multiple of how much plowing could be done.  In other words, something people could relate to in their daily lives.  The metric system on the other hand...

: user999  May 13, 2008, 07:44:26 AM

Speaking for most of the rest of the world, what's a 'mile' and what's an 'inch'?

I know a 'mile' is 1.61 km and an 'inch' is 2.54 cm but what are they really?

Hmm.  They are inch based off of human anatomy & the mile based on a multiple of how much plowing could be done.  In other words, something people could relate to in their daily lives.  The metric system on the other hand...

Yeah, I can see how 0 for freezing, 100 for boiling and multiples of ten can be easily forgettable and downright confusing for a superior, sophisticated mind. That's why the famously over-simplistic U.S. military has used metric for so long, I suppose.

: curious  May 17, 2008, 09:33:54 AM

: user999  May 13, 2008, 07:44:26 AM

Speaking for most of the rest of the world, what's a 'mile' and what's an 'inch'?

I know a 'mile' is 1.61 km and an 'inch' is 2.54 cm but what are they really?

Hmm.  They are inch based off of human anatomy & the mile based on a multiple of how much plowing could be done.  In other words, something people could relate to in their daily lives.  The metric system on the other hand...

Yeah, I can see how 0 for freezing, 100 for boiling and multiples of ten can be easily forgettable and downright confusing for a superior, sophisticated mind. That's why the famously over-simplistic U.S. military has used metric for so long, I suppose.

It gets even harder if you have to remember that a milliliter is a cubic centimeter and that the amount of energy required to heat it by a celsius degree is a calorie and its mass is a gram. How the hell are we supposed to remember such difficult conversions?!

Ya kinda missed the point (or ignored) about inches & miles.   

Ya kinda missed the point (or ignored) about inches & miles.   

Not really!!!   

Hey you sarcastic bastards, curious was just saying why the inch and mile exist... not that they're better or easier.  Actually, having used inches and miles my whole life, I find it hard to relate to metric although the math is obviously easier.

I've noticed curious can take care of himself or herself, whichever is applicable.

Concerning the 'sarcastic bastards' reference, I can't speak for Misanthropic Scott but personally, I greatly resemble that remark.

Ya kinda missed the point (or ignored) about inches & miles.   

Really? Perhaps so. I thought the whole point was that they are incredibly stupid and hard to use measures. Our sarcastic comments were in deep agreement with that point. Was there some other point about them?

Thanks hhopper.

Interrelating the units within a system is not the same as relating units to the real world.  Metric is great for the former and sucks at the latter...

BTW, we should change our time system to decimal also.  100 seconds to the minute, etc.