I was in Israel this past weekend and was trying to describe to my cousin the size of Lake Michigan. (This was in the context of telling him about my new surroundings in Chicagoland.) I realized I don’t know the actual size of the lake so I thought we’d go online and check. I did a search on Google for “lake michigan” map size. No more, no less. The top result was a map of Israel and Lake Michigan superimposed on each other. Thanks, Web. This was certainly an effective way of explaining to an Israeli the size of Lake Michigan.:) (I realize the question of a map of Israel can be a tricky issue. I am not posting this to start an argument about that. I thought from a Web-search point-of-view, this was an interesting/amusing case worth sharing.)
{ 8 comments }
Jon H 12.24.03 at 12:47 am
Interesting. Israel is bigger than I thought…
russ e 12.24.03 at 1:45 am
The last time I flew into the Bay Area I was sitting next to a guy from Walnut Creek. He pointed out the bay to me and asked if Lake Michigan was anywhere near the same size. I told him that Lake Mich was about 300 miles long and about 65 miles wide at the widest–what did he think? [Or about that big….]
More Americans need to subscribe to National Geographic.
Peter MacLeod 12.24.03 at 4:21 am
More Americans need to subscribe to National Geographic.
Or more simply, more need to grow up around maps. We had maps of the U.S. and the world on the wall in the little breakfast room off the kitchen when I was growing up. I would often ponder the amazing size of Lakes Michigan and Superior. Also having a globe around is helpful to get a more realistic idea of scale, which reminds me, I need to get a larger one.
Stentor 12.24.03 at 5:53 am
Israel is smaller than I thought. And looking at some of the other size comparison maps on the site, New Zealand is huge. I would have guessed it was about the same size as Lake Michigan. For a geographer, I’m terrible at estimating the size of things.
Taiwan 12.24.03 at 3:37 pm
http://www.iris.org.il/sizemaps/taiwan.htm
Is it just me, or should this Israel/ Taiwan map come with a parental advisory label?
Zizka 12.25.03 at 3:20 am
But not maps with Greenland on them, because that just causes confusion.
leo 12.25.03 at 7:48 am
Hey, Crooked, the link to the image doesn’t work.
Mrs Tilton 12.26.03 at 9:57 pm
Do you know, I have been to Israel perhaps a dozen times, and never till now did I realise how small is Lake Michigan….
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