size of the USA

Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:34 am GMT
when you want to ask about the size of a country what is the question you should ask:
"How big is the USA?"
"How wide if the USA?"
"What's the size of the USA?"

And what is the answer? "It is ........ kilometers square." or "It is ....... square kilometers?"
Thank you in advance.
murderer   Mon Jun 09, 2008 8:36 am GMT
What is the AREA of the USA?

square kilometers
or
kilometers squared
guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:14 pm GMT
You can say "How big is the US?" and people will know what you're talking about.

"What is the Area of the USA?" sounds geeky and corny, like you're asking for its radius and diameter. They might even get confused, because 'area'--above used in its mathematical sense--is generally not used as such in normal conversation.

If I were asked this same question, my first thought would be: Hmm, area of what?...expertise?...concern?
Skippy   Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:39 pm GMT
Typically one would ask "how big is the US?" but because that comes with a certain degree of ambiguity (population? area? etc.) one could clarify and say "what's the area of the US?" And, if you're asking an American, you're going to get an answer in squared miles... 3,794,066 squared miles.

In finding that statistic I also found out that my home state, Texas, is bigger than Germany, France, and even Ukraine... I thought that was cool.
Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:10 pm GMT
Ukraine is bigger than Texas.
Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:13 pm GMT
<<"What is the Area of the USA?" sounds geeky and corny, like you're asking for its radius and diameter. They might even get confused, because 'area'--above used in its mathematical sense--is generally not used as such in normal conversation. >>

LOL. The US is not a circle, moron. It has no radius or diameter.
How bored am I?   Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:19 pm GMT
Weird question -why ask for sq Km?. Surely America is measured in miles. hmm is that called Imperial in America?.

I'm a bit surprised Texas is bigger than Ukraine. Texas must be huge.

BTW Skippy does a high oil price help Texas? You've still got some oil wells down that way, haven't you?. (maybe not you personally).
guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:11 pm GMT
<<LOL. The US is not a circle, moron. It has no radius or diameter. >>

oh, ha, yeah right, what was I thinking. How stupid and un-nerdly of me.

See, only a true nerd would know that!

Thanks, GEEK! :)
Geek to the rescue   Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:19 pm GMT
The area of US can be expressed in terms of a circle with a determined radius. So US has a radius and you can say, ¿what is the area of US? For example the equivalent radius of US would be:
A = pi* (Req)^2 ; 9.500 000 km2 = pi*(Req)^2 => Req = (9 500 000/pi)^1/2 km.
Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:43 pm GMT
<<oh, ha, yeah right, what was I thinking. How stupid and un-nerdly of me. >>

LOL
Skippy   Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:34 pm GMT
lol actually, Texas IS bigger than Ukraine. Texas is 696,000 km squared while Ukraine is about 604,000.

Texas is still pumping oil, but it's pretty limited. It was actually supposed to have run out by now, but they're still going strong. And actually the federal government makes 2 1/2 times as much as the oil companies off every gallon of gas sold ($0.20 per gallon for the government, $0.08 per gallon to the oil companies). So no, no one in Texas is helped by the high oil prices, because it is unnecessarily difficult to get permission to drill for oil, increase supply, and drive the prices down.
Dude Who Knows   Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:40 pm GMT
Something to consider: the population of the United States is slightly less than the total population of France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The area of the United States is almost five times their total area.
Skippy   Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:24 pm GMT
The US has only been settled for about 500 years... That's about 2000 years less than Europe... Give us a break. Our population will be their soon enough :-)

Btw the fact that the US is so spread out is why we have to drive so much. I'm surprised that many don't seem to understand this.
Guest   Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:38 pm GMT
lol actually, Texas IS bigger than Ukraine. Texas is 696,000 km squared while Ukraine is about 604,000.

That must be the reason why Mexicans hate the US so much, the US seized a lot of land that once belonged to Mexico. I've heard the total Southwest land area has more or less the same land area that Argentina has, can somebody confirm that????
Skippy   Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:29 pm GMT
Guest... we've covered this already. First of all, Mexicans don't hate the US, the only indicator in need of mention is the fact that Mexicans move to the US in droves.

Texas and Mexico drew up the boundaries of Texas after the glorious victory of the Battle of San Jacinto. The boundary of Texas was at the Rio Grande. When Texas became a state, the Mexican government told Santa Anna that he should have drawn up the boundaries at the Nueces River. The Mexicans invaded and, in the end, the US forces had fought the Mexicans all the way to Mexico City.

The peace treaty gave California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado. The area is 525,000 sq miles, far short of Argentina's 1,073,000 sq miles. It's closer to the size of Peru, but the later LEGAL acquisition (purchase) of southern New Mexico and Arizona made it about the size of Mongolia...