Editing 2868: Label the States

Jump to: navigation, search

Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.

The edit can be undone. Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision Your text
Line 10: Line 10:
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
 +
{{incomplete|Created by a LEONIDA MAN - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
 
[[File:label the states 2x highlighted.png|thumb|301px|The map with the extra states highlighted.]]
 
[[File:label the states 2x highlighted.png|thumb|301px|The map with the extra states highlighted.]]
[[File:Blank US Map (white on gray and black).svg|thumb|301px|A real map of the United States for comparison.]]
+
[[File:Blank US Map (white on gray and black).svg|thumb|301px|A real blank map of the United States for comparison.]]
 
This is a blank map of the United States. At first glance, it looks correct, because all the large states with distinct shapes are correctly represented, but some states have been added. For example:
 
This is a blank map of the United States. At first glance, it looks correct, because all the large states with distinct shapes are correctly represented, but some states have been added. For example:
  
 
* On the west coast, Washington, Oregon, and California all have their normal shapes, but there is a new rectangular state south of Oregon and north of California.
 
* On the west coast, Washington, Oregon, and California all have their normal shapes, but there is a new rectangular state south of Oregon and north of California.
* East of this, two more nearly rectangular states have been added between Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and Utah.
 
* A column of five rectangular states has been inserted between Montana/Wyoming/Utah/Arizona and the Dakotas/Nebraska/Colorado/New Mexico.
 
* Another somewhat rectangular state has been added between South Dakota and Nebraska.
 
 
* Ohio and Indiana have been narrowed with a new state being created between them.
 
* Ohio and Indiana have been narrowed with a new state being created between them.
* New states shaped like Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina have been added directly south of those states.
+
* A new, Tennessee-shaped state has been added between Tennessee and Kentucky.
 +
* Additionally, a new, North Carolina-shaped state has been added between Virginia and North Carolina.
 +
* A square-shaped state has been added between Arizona and New Mexico.
 +
* Another rectangular state has been added between North and South Dakota (Middle Dakota?).
 +
* An Arkansas-esque state has been added between Arkansas and Missouri.
 
* New Hampshire now has a state that looks like its reflection between itself and Maine.
 
* New Hampshire now has a state that looks like its reflection between itself and Maine.
 +
* Four rectangular states have been added between Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado and the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas.
 +
* Another rectangular state has been added between Colorado and Wyoming.
 +
* Lastly, another rectangular state has been added between Idaho, Utah, and Nevada.
  
In summary, a (disjointed) row and a whole (slightly staggered) column of states have been added, and two new states have been added between Indiana and Ohio and between New Hampshire and Maine. The external shape of the United States ends up slightly modified to accommodate the new states with generic coastlines or borders contrived to resemble or reflect the actual adjacent ones, at least to the casual glance, as also with the new internal borderlines. As the title text says, there are now 64 states on Randall's map, not 50.
+
In summary, a whole row and a whole column of states have been added, and two new states have been added between Indiana and Ohio and between New Hampshire and Vermont. The external shape of the United States has also been slightly modified to accommodate the new states. As the title text says, there are now 64 states on Randall's map, not 50.
  
In comic [[2394: Contiguous 41 States]], the opposite has been done, removing states so that there are 41 states instead of 50 or 64.
+
In comic [[2394]], this has also been done, but with 41 states instead of 64.
  
The title text comments on the cliché that Americans are bad at civics and geography, parodying comments that Americans cannot name many of the US states. A statistic is mentioned saying that most people can only name 45-50 states, which is almost all of the actual states, but looks poor in comparison to the 64 states in the comic's map. Since the extra fourteen states are made up and do not have names,{{cn}} people will not be able to name them and get a perfect 64/64 score. The cliché is also parodied in [[850|850: World According to Americans]].
+
The title text comments on the fact that Americans are bad at geography, parodying comments that Americans cannot name all 50 of the US states.
  
Being mean to people by asking them to name states on bad maps was also mentioned in the title text of [[1653: United States Map]].
+
==Transcript==
 +
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
  
==Transcript==
+
:Geography Challenge:
:Geography Challenge: Can you label all the states?
+
:Can you label all the states?
  
 
:[An unlabeled map of the United States, but instead of 50 states, there are borders for 64.]
 
:[An unlabeled map of the United States, but instead of 50 states, there are borders for 64.]

Please note that all contributions to explain xkcd may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here.
You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see explain xkcd:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission!

To protect the wiki against automated edit spam, we kindly ask you to solve the following CAPTCHA:

Cancel | Editing help (opens in new window)