
The size of the moon, relative to the Australian mainland - bookofjoe
https://cheezburger.com/3881630720
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kirke
So this tells us that the diameter of the moon is roughly one Australia, East
to West.

Alternatively, if we simplify Australia to a circle, then the moon's radius is
equal to Australia's radius.

Therefore, since the (surface) area of a circle is πr^2 and the surface area
of a sphere is 4πr^2, the moon has roughly four times the surface area of
Australia.

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peter_retief
Thanks I was wondering about the way it was represented, so the surface area
of the moon is 4x that of Australia, that's pretty big. Large enough for a
human colony for sure.

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onlyrealcuzzo
Considering that the Earth is mostly water, 4x the land area of Australia, is
probably a decent portion of all land area on Earth.

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symplee
Got me curious enough to look this up:

    
    
      Total surface area of Earth is ~500,000,000 km^2
      Total land area of Earth is ~150,000,000 km^2 (~.29 Earth)
      Australia's land area is ~7,500,000 km^2 (~.015 Earth, 5% of land area)
      Moon surface area is ~38,000,000 km^2 (~0.074 Earth, 25% of land area)

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symplee
Meta reply, I think we all just fell victim to Cunningham's Law [0]

"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a
question; it's to post the wrong answer."

[https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law](https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law)

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symplee
Similar, there's a website where you can compare the _true_ size of countries.
It allows you to drag and drop countries around the map, thus seeing the
country "grow" and "shrink" with the stretching effects of a flat map.

[https://thetruesize.com/](https://thetruesize.com/)

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deogeo
> stretching effects of a flat map

Of the Mercator projection! There are many other projections that can be (and
are) used to make a flat map, that preserve area.

Edit: This is surely the most anodyne comment I ever wrote to get downvoted.

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xref
If people are interested in the aforementioned other projections, this was a
fun article. Stay to the end and check out the AuthaGraph projection! I def
need to order one of those for the wall

[https://geoawesomeness.com/best-map-
projection/](https://geoawesomeness.com/best-map-projection/)

~~~
jacobwilliamroy
Do the AuthaGraph inventors ever mention the dymaxion projection? I always
felt creeped out that the two maps are so similar, yet no one ever talks about
the dymaxion projection. As far as I can tell the AuthaGraph people have
neither confirmed nor denied knowing about the dymaxion projection.

~~~
carapace
They seem pretty distinct to me. The Dymaxion projection preserves _shape_ as
well as area.

[http://www.authagraph.com/projects/description/%E3%80%90%E4%...](http://www.authagraph.com/projects/description/%E3%80%90%E4%BD%9C%E5%93%81%E8%A7%A3%E8%AA%AC%E3%80%91%E8%A8%98%E4%BA%8B01/?lang=en)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map)

~~~
jacobwilliamroy
Oh wow. I never noticed. I thought authagraph just stretched out the seas to
make the map rectangular. I can see now they are different.

I found Hajime Narukawa's website and he actually has a several posts
explaining various dymaxion technologies. Link confirmed!

[http://narukawa-lab.jp/archives/dymaxion-map/](http://narukawa-
lab.jp/archives/dymaxion-map/)

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Thorentis
I think more interestingly, this shows just how big Australia is. Many people
don't realise just how big the continent actually is, since they've only heard
of Sydney (isn't that the capital? there are other cities there too?!).

Australia fits edge to edge almost completely over Europe, and completely over
the US and part of Canada. Yes, unfortunately, the vast majority of the
continent is uninhabitable desert, but the sheer size of it is amazing.

If terra-forming is ever possible, I think Australia is a great candidate to
test it out on, before trying it somewhere more expensive like Mars.

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jen729w
Sydney is not the capital! Canberra is, and a fine city it is too.

Ironically, given that it is the only city many foreigners could name, Sydney
is (arguably) many Australian’s least favourite city. It’s too big, and its
geography makes it a nightmare to get around. Less arguably, parts of it are
stunning to look at. But as a place to live? No thanks.

Of course I would say that, being from Melbourne. ;-)

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9nGQluzmnq3M
It's kind of telling that Melburnians never miss a chance to slag Sydney,
while Sydneysiders are too busy surfing at their 200+ beaches to worry about a
country town that tries to make up for its lack of attractions or industry
with coffee and an inferiority complex... :P

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chii
so much so that to avoid the controversy, the gov't chose to just build out a
city in the middle between sydney and melbourne and use that as a capital city
rather than settle once and for all which is better...

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kijin
Canada is the same. They built Ottawa in the middle of nowhere, halfway
between Toronto and Montreal.

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masonic

      They built Ottawa in the middle of nowhere
    

And on the fringe of nowhere, they built their hockey rink.

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nwallin
Also, the Andromeda Galaxy is about six times as wide (and about as tall) as
the moon. So Australia is about five times as wide and about as tall as the
Andromeda Galaxy, which means it's about 20,000 light years wide and 4,000
light years tall. </s>

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masonic
How does Tasmania compare in size to the Magellanic Clouds, then?

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MoronInAHurry
A meme-style image from cheezburger.com near the top of HN.

These truly are the end times.

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ajna91
Mass hysteria!

