Geography quiz

[Harrison]

317 cities, 73.29% of the 2016 national urban population. Metro Montreal, Metro Quebec and smaller centres in the maritimes were tough for me.

[Innsertnamehere]

Quebec outside of the largest cities is tough for me too, especially given the crazy amount of municipalities in the Montreal metro. I got the big ones but all the smaller municipalities escape me.

Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan pull blanks as well. My family being from NB gave me pretty good NB coverage, I’ve travelled, done work in, and know lots of people from BC and Alberta so I had pretty good coverage there, and am from Ontario, where I nailed basically every municipality of note (~90% of the provinces population).

[north 42]

Originally Posted by lio45

Most of those are so close that I wouldn't be able to venture an answer (it'd be flipping a penny).

I know Pointe Pelee in Ontario overlaps (barely) California in latitude. Seeing where Portland is in the state, I am pretty confident it's further north than Toronto.

Vancouver is west of LA.
Toulouse is west of Paris.
I'm nearly sure Bangkok is west of Singapore.

Point Pelee as well as Colchester, the only town in mainland Canada below the 42nd parallel.

[Hali87]

I got 331, 78.32% of total population.

NS is artificially quite tough because a lot of major towns aren't included and the ones that are seem really arbitrary. For example Clark's Harbour and Lockeport are included but Argyle, Barrington Passage, Liverpool are not. Dartmouth is included but Bedford is not. Sydney is included with its population noted as ~30,000 but Glace Bay, New Waterford and Louisbourg are absent - Glace Bay was the third largest municipality in NS as recently as the 90s. Etc. Canso, Guysborough, Parrsboro, Springhill, Ingonish are all excluded. I would guess that a lot of this reflects recent municipal re-organizations/mergers although even accounting for those there seem to be a lot of errors.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Answer key:

Farther north:
1. Portland Oregon or Toronto?
2. Perth or Sydney?
3. Dublin or Manchester?
4. Warsaw or Berlin?
5. Buenos Aires or Santiago?

Farther west:
1. Vancouver or Los Angeles?
2. Beijing or Shanghai?
3. Paris or Toulouse?
4. Nairobi or Cairo?
5. Bangkok or Singapore?

I was 100% correct!!! (on the 40% of the quiz that I actually answered!)

[lio45]

Originally Posted by jonny24

A couple were "accidents" - i.e. it gave me credit for St Mary's, NFLD, which I've never heard of, when I meant St. Mary's Ontario. My smallest was 235 (Pelee).

So you'd have to say Windsor three times, and it would give you credit for the one in Ontario, then the one in Quebec, then the one in Nova Scotia? Or it counts triple if you say it just once? Because based on what you're saying, you don't need to have the province right, just the city name.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by lio45

So you'd have to say Windsor three times, and it would give you credit for the one in Ontario, then the one in Quebec, then the one in Nova Scotia? Or it counts triple if you say it just once? Because based on what you're saying, you don't need to have the province right, just the city name.

It defaults to the largest IIRC then you have to input specific provinces for the smaller ones.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by jonny24

Damn, that's impressive!

Doing the United States, I get 1,089 (36% of the US population.)

What really helps to drive up the numbers is to go through all the variations on US presidents and other famous politicians, then go through all the European places you can think of, and then do silly combinations like [colour, tree, animal] [rock, lake, creek, river, springs, butte]. Also, go through the dictionary in your head. The more random, the more success you'll find.

BTW, the state with the fewest names I could get: Hawaii (3). Most? California (72).

Europe is 711 cities (29.5%). Best is United Kingdom (170).

[lio45]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

Doing the United States, I get 1,089 (36% of the US population.)

What really helps to drive up the numbers is to go through all the variations on US presidents and other famous politicians, then go through all the European places you can think of, and then do silly combinations like [colour, tree, animal] [rock, lake, creek, river, springs, butte].

Add stuff named after British monarchs too. There are places named Charleston, Georgetown, Kingston, etc. in many states I'm sure.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by JHikka

It defaults to the largest IIRC then you have to input specific provinces for the smaller ones.

So when it gives you credit for the one in Newfoundland that you didn't know existed, you can repeat it but specify you mean the one in Ontario this time (which is the one you meant originally), and it gives you credit again?

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by lio45

So when it gives you credit for the one in Newfoundland that you didn't know existed, you can repeat it but specify you mean the one in Ontario this time (which is the one you meant originally), and it gives you credit again?

Yes. Similar to if you do the American map and guess Springfield for every state.

[jonny24]

I was specifically trying to avoid just guessing names, and see how many I actually knew, which is why I mentioned my St Marys one.

I also accidentally got Sunnyside, NFLD, because I couldn't quite remember Summerside, PEI properly.

[Franco401]

154 Cities, 20 242 334 people, 62.74%

https://iafisher.com/projects/cities...a/share/243144

[VANRIDERFAN]

Farther north:
1. Portland Oregon or Toronto? Portland
2. Perth or Sydney? Sydney
3. Dublin or Manchester? Manchester
4. Warsaw or Berlin? Berlin
5. Buenos Aires or Santiago? Santiago

Farther west:
1. Vancouver or Los Angeles? Vancouver
2. Beijing or Shanghai? Beijing
3. Paris or Toulouse? Paris
4. Nairobi or Cairo? Nairobi
5. Bangkok or Singapore? Bangkok

[lio45]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

3. Paris or Toulouse? Paris

Originally Posted by jonny24

3. Paris or Toulouse? Paris

? You guys don't know that Toulouse is in the Southwest? And that Paris is pretty much dead center in the country, longitude-wise?

That's like guessing that a central state (say, Kansas) is further west than a southwestern state (say, Arizona) ...

Without checking a map, anyone will default-guess that Bordeaux and Toulouse are west of Paris, and Marseille and Lyon are east of Paris.

I suppose you're just really not familiar with the old country (by Quebec standards)

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by lio45

? You guys don't know that Toulouse is in the Southwest? And that Paris is pretty much dead center in the country, longitude-wise?

That's like guessing that a central state (say, Kansas) is further west than a southwestern state (say, Arizona) ...

Without checking a map, anyone will default-guess that Bordeaux and Toulouse are west of Paris, and Marseille and Lyon are east of Paris.

I suppose you're just really not familiar with the old country (by Quebec standards)

No, I got Toulouse confused with Toulon, which I am much more familiar with due to their Top14 rugby dominance a few years ago.

Also, in my mind the eastern border of France simplifies as a straight line running North-Northwest to South-Southeast. So while I knew that Paris was closer to that line than Toulouse is, I wasn't sure how that translated to a direct north-south relationship.

But mostly the Toulon thing..

Edit: And I definitely had absolutely zero concept of where Bordeaux is

[MolsonExport]

easy: https://www.sporcle.com/games/g/cana...ulous?t=canada

[MolsonExport]

Fastest growing CMA/CA in Canada? Whitehorse

[rousseau]

Farther north:
London or Calgary?
London or Berlin?
London or Vladivostok?
New York or Lisbon?
New York or Beijing?
New York or Omaha?

Farther west:
London or Madrid?
London or Algiers?
London or Lagos?
New York or Caracas?
New York or Lima?
New York or Santiago?

(Uh, the London in the UK)

[bridgeoftea]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Farther north:
London or Calgary?
London or Berlin?
London or Vladivostok?
New York or Lisbon?
New York or Beijing?
New York or Omaha?

Farther west:
London or Madrid?
London or Algiers?
London or Lagos?
New York or Caracas?
New York or Lima?
New York or Santiago?

(Uh, the London in the UK)

North Guesses
Calgary
London
London
Lisbon
New York
New York

West Guesses
Madrid
Algiers
London
New York
Lima
Santiago