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Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
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<big>''Welcome to the '''explain [[xkcd]]''' wiki!''</big>

Revision as of 00:37, 4 March 2013

Welcome to the explain xkcd wiki!

We have collaboratively explained 6 xkcd comics, and only 2921 (48683%) remain. Add yours while there's a chance!

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Go to this comic explanation

Alphabetical Cartogram
Poor Weeoming.
Title text: Poor Weeoming.

Explanation

Ambox notice.png This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by an SUSPICIOUSLY SMALLER-THAN-USUAL BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

This comic shows a map of the United States, with every state resized based on where it appears in an alphabetical list of states. Hence Alabama is the largest state, Wyoming is the smallest.

Wyoming shrank the most, while Delaware grew the largest proportionally in geographical size. In the ranking of US states by area, Texas's position dropped the most, while Delaware and Connecticut's positions rose the most.

This coincides with a recent study from the University of Michigan showing that the alphabetical order of surnames leads to differences in grading.

The title text creates a portmanteau of the words “wee,” which means “little,” and “Wyoming,” making fun of how small it is on this map.

Bias resulting from alphabetical order was also the topic of 2789: Making Plans.

Table of states

# States by Size States Alphabetically
1 Alaska Alabama
2 Texas Alaska
3 California Arizona
4 Montana Arkansas
5 New Mexico California
6 Arizona Colorado
7 Nevada Connecticut
8 Colorado Delaware
9 Oregon Florida
10 Wyoming Georgia
11 Michigan Hawaii
12 Minnesota Idaho
13 Utah Illinois
14 Idaho Indiana
15 Kansas Iowa
16 Nebraska Kansas
17 South Dakota Kentucky
18 Washington Louisiana
19 North Dakota Maine
20 Oklahoma Maryland
21 Missouri Massachusetts
22 Florida Michigan
23 Wisconsin Minnesota
24 Georgia Mississippi
25 Illinois Missouri
26 Iowa Montana
27 New York Nebraska
28 North Carolina Nevada
29 Arkansas New Hampshire
30 Alabama New Jersey
31 Louisiana New Mexico
32 Mississippi New York
33 Pennsylvania North Carolina
34 Ohio North Dakota
35 Virginia Ohio
36 Tennessee Oklahoma
37 Kentucky Oregon
38 Indiana Pennsylvania
39 Maine Rhode Island
40 South Carolina South Carolina
41 West Virginia South Dakota
42 Maryland Tennessee
43 Hawaii Texas
44 Massachusetts Utah
45 Vermont Vermont
46 New Hampshire Virginia
47 New Jersey Washington
48 Connecticut West Virginia
49 Delaware Wisconsin
50 Rhode Island Wyoming

Transcript

Ambox notice.png This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.
A More Fair Map
Instead of giving more area to larger states, this map improves fairness by sizing the states alphabetically.
[A labeled map of the United States where states are resized based on their alphabetical order]


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