Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!sei!firth
From: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Discovery - UFO Close Encounter?
Message-ID: <3137@bd.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 3 Apr 89 17:15:17 GMT
References: <4440@drivax.UUCP> <7751@pyr.gatech.EDU> <355@cbnewsl.ATT.COM> <7767@pyr.gatech.EDU> <707@rocksanne.UUCP> <7803@pyr.gatech.EDU>
Reply-To: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Organization: Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 32

In article <7803@pyr.gatech.EDU> ccoprmd@pyr.UUCP (Matthew T. DeLuca) writes:

 [from orbit, the United States is clearly the most advanced nation on 
 Earth]

>No, I haven't.  But the population density of Europe is only slightly greater
>than that of the U.S., and we do have a greater infrastructure than Europe, 
>however you care to measure it.

If you haven't looked it up, why speculate?

In fact, Western Europe has a population density more than twice that
of the US (approx 300 million in 2 million sq miles, versus 240 million
in 3.6 million sq miles).

Concerning infrastructure, I care to measure it also by density.  For
instance, the US has a static rail network slightly less dense than
that of W Europe (300k miles /3.6M sq miles versus 180k miles /2M sq miles).
Thus, it has a lower density of: canals, railways, hydroelectric works,
and electric power generation.

The US has a higher density infrastructure in one major area: long distance
roads (160k miles /3.6M versus about 50k miles /2M is my guess; it's not
easy to compute since standards differ hugely, unlike railways where only
two gauges are involved).  I was unable to find figures about natural
inland navigable waterways and coastal traffic, but suspect the US has
the edge there, too.

[Sources: Britannica Encyclopaedia & World Book; Times Atlas of the
 World.  Most data from 1983-86.  "Western Europe" obtained by adding
 Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Low
 Countries and West Germany]