World map?

[sithlord]

Why is it that on a map of the world certain country's are the same colour with no real plausible reason for it? I.e.... USA, Southern Ireland, Nigeria, Nepal and Borneo are all orange. China, Canada, Madagascar, Argentina and Spain arew all yellow!!!!!!!!!! Whats the connection???

[SteveD]

Here is a list of countries of the world. I haven't counted them, but do you expect a map of the world to be printed with one colour for each country?:

http://www.infoplease.com/countries.html

The "Four Colour Theorem" states that only four colours need to be used in order to ensure that no no two neighbouring countries have the same colour:

http://www.adit.co.uk/html/map_colours.html

That site, however, proposes the use of more colours for clarity. Consequently, some countries must share the same colour.

[volks76]

Without wanting to sound pedantic, there's no country called Southern Ireland, perhaps you mean the Republic of Ireland.