Uncle John’s Impossible Questions & Astounding Answers (16 page)

The logical answer might be in a desert state, such as New Mexico, or perhaps near the ocean—like the giant dunes on the central Oregon coast. But the answer is…Nebraska. More than a quarter of this land-locked state is made up of grass-stabilized sand dunes that are as much as 330 feet high. They’re located in western Nebraska in an area called the Sand Hills that covers roughly 20,000 square miles. According to geologists, the dunes were once part of an ancient inland sea that dried up more than 100,000 years ago.

Egypt. Most of it sits on the African continent, but the northeastern part of the country—the Sinai Peninsula—is located in Asia. Turkey and Russia could be the answer, in that both countries sit partly in Asia and partly in Europe, but those two continents form a single land mass now commonly referred to as Eurasia. Egypt, however, is truly a country of two continents. This mostly Arab, mostly Muslim, nation has about 80 million people—95 percent of whom live along the Nile River. It boasts the largest population in the Middle East and the third-largest in Africa.

Footnote:
Another country that many people claim belongs to two continents is Panama. However, it’s a common misconception that the Panama Canal separates North and South America—it doesn’t. According to most geographers, South America starts at the Colombian border.

North America has three of the five largest lakes in the world. What are they? What and where are the other two?

What’s the largest lake in the U.S. after the Great Lakes? What’s the largest lake after
that
one?

Where is the real Mammoth Lake?

The five biggest lakes in the world:

1
. The Caspian Sea, which borders four countries in Europe and Asia, is 143,000 square miles.

2
. Lake Superior, in North America, is 31,820 square miles.

3
. Africa’s Lake Victoria, at 26,828 square miles, is the largest tropical lake in the world.

4
. Lake Huron, in North America, is 23,010 square miles.

5
. Lake Michigan, in the U.S., is 22,400 square miles.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah, at 1,700 square miles, is the largest lake in the U.S. that’s not a Great Lake. It’s the only body of water left over from an ancient inland sea known as Lake Bonneville, which once covered much of western North America. The next largest U.S. lake is Okeechopee in Florida—it’s 730 square miles.

There is none. Mammoth Lakes (notice the plural) is actually a geographic region in California’s Eastern Sierra mountains. The town and surrounding area are revered for snow-capped peaks, ancient forests, waterfalls, and some very pretty lakes. How did it get its name? Not because of any woolly mammoth fossils, but because of gold: The area was first settled by the Mammoth Mining Company after prospectors discovered gold there.

What is the most common street name in the United States?

Cartographically speaking, what do Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., have in common?

What’s the longest shared border between two countries? What’s the busiest border between two countries?

Did you guess Main Street or First Street? It’s neither. Answer: Second Street. Why wouldn’t First be first? Because a town wouldn’t normally have a First Street unless it also had a Second Street (and a Third and a Fourth, and so on). So why aren’t First and Second more or less tied? Turns out that many small towns have a main street (often called Main Street) that they count as their number-one route through town—their first street, so to speak, but not their First Street. They actually start counting at Second Street. Subtract the number of First/Main Streets that have been renamed to honor a prominent citizen, and it’s easy to see why Second is really first.

Look in any atlas. On the page that has a map of the entire United States, each of these state names is too long to fit inside its designated area, so each one must be abbreviated, or printed off the map with an indicator line pointing to it.

The longest border between two countries is the U.S.- Canada border, at 5,525 miles (including Canada’s border with Alaska). The busiest is the U.S.-Mexico border. Although it’s much shorter than the U.S.-Canada border (1,969 miles), there are about 350 million crossings between Mexico and the U.S. each year. (The U.S.-Canadian border has fewer than half that amount.)

It’s a nationwide battle for bragging rights! In terms of elevation, which U.S. state is considered the lowest of the low?

Three U.S. states vie for the title of the lowest, but the answer remains elusive because each state uses different criteria to measure its low-itude. Should the title go to the state with the lowest point, the lowest highest point, or the lowest average elevation?

• Californians lay claim to the title because they have the lowest point in the nation: Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, which lies 282 feet below sea level.

• Delawareans counter that California’s multitude of mountains elevate that state to a much higher average elevation. They claim that they deserve the title based on the fact that Delaware has the lowest
average
elevation of all the states—60 feet above sea level.

• Floridians cry foul! Delaware’s highest point—the Ebright Azimuth near Wilmington—is 451 feet above sea level, whereas Florida’s highest point—Britton Hill in the Panhandle—is only 345 feet above sea level. (It’s the state’s highest “natural” point; some of its skyscrapers are higher.) For this reason, Florida claims that it’s tops in the lowest because it has the lowest top in the lower 48.

One reason for the confusion: the board game Trivial Pursuit. In original edition of the game, one of the questions was, “Which U.S. state has the lowest elevation of 60 feet?” The answer was supposed to be Delaware, but the question was poorly worded. It should have said “lowest
average
elevation.”

What’s so special about the water in Yellowstone’s Isa Lake?