How well do you know the U.S.? See how fast you can name all 50 states (or if, indeed, you CAN name them all).
ahhh...another MSNBC reader, too? I did this earlier, and I was so irritated at myself that I missed friggin' Idaho and Massachusetts. Couldn't believe it! Just drew a blank. Had the other 48 typed in like 3 minutes or something.
I was cruising right along then hit a wall with six to go. I finally came up with Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Arizona. But I crapped out on New Mexico. I would have aced this back in 7th grade, though!!
Dang! I missed Missouri. No excuse - I've been to all 50 - should've got 'em all. I got 49 is under 5 minutes and then just went blank.
When I first tried this yesterday, I forgot Nebraska (oddly, several people on the board I found this also forgot Nebraska). Today I got them all in 8:29.
When I was living and working in Ireland, there were multiple people who kept mentioning the 52 states. No amount of arguing would convince them that there are only 50. I would even ask them to write them down or look them up. If they could find two states I didn't know about, I offered to buy them a pint.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Mar 6 2007, 03:51 PM) [snapback]401133[/snapback]</div> They were probably thinking of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, which are territories, not states. Yet. That said, there are a lot more territories. Did I memorize them? No. Why? I can look them up when I need them. United States Territories # American Samoa # Baker Island -- (uninhabited, administered from Washington, DC) # Federated States of Micronesia # Guam # Howland Island -- (uninhabited, administered from Washington, DC) # Jarvis Island -- (uninhabited, administered from Washington, DC) # Johnston Atoll -- (under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Air Force) # Kingman Reef -- (uninhabited, under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy) # Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands # Midway Islands -- (under the responsibility of the US Fish & Wildlife Service) # Navassa Island -- (uninhabited, administered from Washington, DC) # Palmyra Atoll -- (uninhabited, under the responsibility of the U.S. Dept. of Interior) # Puerto Rico # U.S. Virgin Islands # Wake Island -- (under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Air Force)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(TonyPSchaefer @ Mar 6 2007, 03:51 PM) [snapback]401133[/snapback]</div> I had that argument once. Finally I took a map of the U.S., they pointed to the continental U.S. and said, "There's 50," and pointed to Alaska and Hawaii and smugly said, "And 51 and 52." The look on their face when I had them count the 48 states: Priceless
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stev0 @ Mar 6 2007, 02:36 PM) [snapback]401048[/snapback]</div> Surely someone has dreamed up a mnemonic for this? When I was a kid I had to learn the colours of the rainbow and the mnemonic was VIBGYOR. For some strange reason I still remember this: it mean violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange red. As for those States - well hard to get beyond New York, Washington and California for me and I certainly couldn't name more than about 9 of the EU states.
Got them all with 7:08 remaining. I knew something good would come of that 50 States song some day. . . Ahhh, procrastination. . .
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Mar 6 2007, 04:04 PM) [snapback]401158[/snapback]</div> Funny. Here it's Roy G. Biv. (The mnemonic for the primary colors, that is.) You Brits have it all backwards! You're released from having to know all of the United States.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Mar 6 2007, 04:04 PM) [snapback]401158[/snapback]</div> I learned it as if it were someone's name: "Roy G. Biv" Although, now that I think of it, it seems like you have very high spectral resolution at the blue end, but much of the middle of the spectrum is just binned as "Green"
Anyone else learn the 50 states as a kid by singing "50 nifty United States from 13 original colonies..."?
ah crap... I missed Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Utah (no idea how I missed that) and Vermont.
Couldn't get Iowa and Missouri. I picked off the rest of them from west to east within the first four minutes.
