The greatest distance between two points within the contiguous
U.S. is 2,892 miles, stretching from Point Arena, CA to West
Quoddy Head, ME*. The circumference of the Moon is 6,784. To
help put the scale of each into perspective, redditor
boredboarder8 decided to overlay one on top of the other, giving
rise to the approximation you see above. [Click here for hi-res]
It was difficult for me to fathom the size of the moon, thus
inspiring the creation of this map. For me, this map puts the
scale of the moon much smaller than I previously imagined. But
it's really interesting hearing how others (already grasping the
size of the moon) now see the US as larger. [Ed.: 'MURICA,
amirite?] It was one definitely a weird challenge to take a
"flat" map of something on a sphere and project it onto a
smaller sphere. Got mindfucked a few times along the way.
Certainly take it only as an approximation, but what intrigued
me the most is that the distance spanning the continental United
States is roughly equal to a little less