party_pants said:
mollwollfumble said:
Geography quiz
1. Which country, now the third largest in Africa, used to be the largest in Africa?
2. Which of these four has the largest area? Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte
3. Is Kosovo a country?
4. New Caledonia is due east of: Cape Melville, Cooktown, Cairns, Townsville, or Mackay?
5. Brazil’s largest island is quite large, 63% of the size of Tasmania. What is its name and how does it change its size?
6. How many territories does Australia have? 5, 7, 9, 10
7. How many territories does New Zealand have? 1, 2, 3, 4
8. If I separate out large countries such as France from small counties such as Lichtenstein, what would you consider to the smallest large country and largest small country?
9. The crosswords I’m solving have a number of geography questions in them. “River in Brazil (5)”, “County in Ireland (5)”, “City in west France (5)”
10. Which country consists of a single island?
I take it we are supposed to guess, without looking anything up?
1. Sudan
2. Mauritania
3. Yes
4. Townsville
5. No idea of the name, but it is at the mouth of the Amazon. It shrinks when the river is in flood and expands when the water level is low.
6. 10, NT, ACT, Norfold Island, Lord How Island, Heard Island, MacQuarie Island, Christmas Island, Cocos and Keeling Islands, Ashrmore Reef and Cartier Island, Coral Sea Islands.
7. 4 – I think they have lots more than that BTW.
8. WTF?? Rank al the countries in order by size and pick the middle two in the correct order?? Slovenia and Panama
9. pass, Kerry, Brest.
10. Tough one, you mean no smaller satellite islands. Let’s go with somewhere in the Caribbean… Martinique?
> 1. Sudan
Correct. I was very surprised to find that Sudan was that big. It shrank to third place when it lost South Sudan in the year 2011.
> 2. Mauritania
Yep. It’s about the same size as France. The other three are tiny.
> 3. Yes
> 3. Is no I think.
Not that simple. The world is split just about 50:50 on the question of whether Kosovo is a country. Portugal says it is, Spain says it’s not. USA says it is, Russia says it’s not. Pakistan says it is, India says it’s not. It’s a totally weird situation. The following is a map showing all countries that accept Kosovo as a country.
> 4. Townsville
> 4. Cairns
No for both.
> 5. No idea of the name, but it is at the mouth of the Amazon. It shrinks when the river is in flood and expands when the water level is low.
Yes. The name is Marajo.
> 6. Australia Territories. 10, NT, ACT, Norfold Island, Lord How Island, Heard Island, MacQuarie Island, Christmas Island, Cocos and Keeling Islands, Ashrmore Reef and Cartier Island, Coral Sea Islands.
> 6. 5
No.
> 7. New Zealand Territories 4 – I think they have lots more than that BTW.
> 7. 2
No.
> 8. WTF?? Rank al the countries in order by size and pick the middle two in the correct order?? Slovenia and Panama
Thank you for your input.
Wikipedia tends to draw the line at an area of 10,000 square km. Which would make Lebanon the smallest large country and Cypress the largest small country. I’m thinking of drawing the line just a little bit smaller than that, making Brunei the largest small country at 5,765 square km.
> 9. pass, Kerry, Brest.
> I took it to mean we are completing the last three questions on the crossword that Moll couldn’t get.
Three. Brest is the one the crossword wanted. Well done! Not Kerry, though.
You’re right. I didn’t get any of the three so looked up the crossword answers in the back.
> 10. Tough one, you mean no smaller satellite islands. Let’s go with somewhere in the Caribbean… Martinique?
> 10. Singapore.
> 10 could be Greenland if it’s a country or Madagascan
Is a tough one. No correct answers yet.
No. Good try. Martinique is a single island but isn’t a country, it’s owned by France. But there is one country in the Caribbean that is a country with just a single island.
No. Singapore as a country has three main islands and numerous small ones.
Not Greenland or Madagascar. Madagascar has lots of islands, surprisingly.
> I still trying to find Bazil on my globe.
Oops! I meant to say Brazil.
PS, I asked mrs m if she recognised anything on my incomplete equal area map of the world, I only had half the countries plotted. She thought my map of Antarctica was a map of Russia. Whoops. I’m proud that she did get Greenland right, even though it was plotted equal area and lying on its side.