For example on wikipedia for Switzerland it says the country has an area of 41,285 km². Does this take into account that a lot of that area is actually angled at a steep inclination, thus the actual surface area is in effect larger than what you would expect when looking onto a map in satellite view?
I can’t remember if it was Matt Parker or Tom Scott who did a thing about this on youtube, and I think the answer was no, they just use whatever method is easiest to get these numbers, and they’re not even using a consistent methodology from one country to the next.
It was by Matt Parker. Here it is: https://youtu.be/PtKhbbcc1Rc
or watch it on piped.video if you prefer: https://piped.video/PtKhbbcc1Rc
Holy fucking shit. I can’t believe this is a question people have asked and others have answered and that the answer is so unsatisfying for pedants.
thanks for the links!
the south park guy?
oh.
lol thanks for saving me the trouble of fact checking myself too
Matt Parker, stand-up mathematician.
Colleague of Trey Stone.