How to play Further North
Each round shows you two cities and asks one question: which is further north, or which is further west. Tap your answer and the map moves to show both cities, with a line through each one so you can see the difference. There is no timer, and a full set of seven takes about a minute.
Why the answers surprise people
Most of us judge position by climate and by how a map looks in memory, and both can mislead. Rome is further north than New York, by about 1.1 degrees of latitude. Paris is further north than Seattle, and London is further north than Calgary. Going east and west, Miami is further west than Lima, and New York is further west than Santiago, because South America sits well to the east of where many people picture it.
Today's seven and practice
Today's seven is the same set for everyone on the same day. You can share your score as a row of green and red squares that gives away no answers. Practice deals pairs you have not seen yet, for as long as you like. Your results stay in your browser, and there is no account.
Where the answers come from
Every answer is calculated from city coordinates in Natural Earth, a public domain map dataset. A coordinate marks one point for a whole city, so we leave out any pair closer than 0.4 degrees. Our editors choose which cities to pair, and they favour pairs that people tend to get wrong.
Tips for a higher score
Do not trust the weather. Western Europe is much milder than its latitude suggests, so its cities are often further north than they feel.
Remember how South America lines up. Much of the continent lies east of Florida, so a city in Peru or Chile can be further east than one in the United States.
Learn a few anchor cities. Once you know that New York and Madrid sit at about the same latitude, many other questions get easier.
