All of us have some sort of mental map inside of our heads of how the world is laid out.

North America is north of South America.

Europe is west of Asia, etc.

However, even the greatest geography minds often have a flawed mental map of the world.

Places aren't often where they think they are in relation to someplace else.

Learn more about why almost everyone's mental map of the world is wrong and why it's so on this episode of

everything everywhere daily. Let me start this episode with a simple question.

What country is closer to the continent of Africa, the United States, or Canada?

Most people will think through the problem this way.

The United States is south of Canada and Africa. Most people will think through the problem this way.

United States is south of Canada and Africa is in the south.

Therefore, the United States is probably closer to Africa than Canada.

And if I were to further ask what part of the United States was closest to Africa,

most people would probably figure it was Florida.

However, none of that is true.

Canada is actually closer to Africa than the United States is.

And if you don't believe me, just look at a globe.

Moreover, the closest US state to Africa is Maine, not Florida.

There are a couple reasons why people don't realize this fact. The biggest

is that we tend to think of things in relation to each other only by one direction. So we think of

Canada and the United States as being north and south of each other.

However, Canada also extends profoundly more to the east of the United States.

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