Things the size of Rhode Island

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the good ole U.S. of A. Last year was a good year for using Rhode Island as a gauge of how large or small something was in the news. When the Antarctic ice shelf Larsen B fell apart last year, that is how the New York Times described it, as a "Rhode Island-size piece of the floating ice fringe along a fast-warming region of Antarctica." We also got compared to the California wildfires that were so destructive. I've also remember reading about RI being compared in size to impact craters from stray meteors. For the most part, Rhody is usually not associated with good news, such as "doctors removed a tumor the size of Rhode Island from Rush Limbaugh's prostate." Rhode Island is apparently about 1200 square miles.

Another state that gets used and abused in the comparisons game is Texas (260,000 sq. mi.), largest of the 48 contiguous states. Texas is therefore about 216 times bigger than Rhode Island. Now if only Texas were made of ice...

Rhode Island, it turns out, can be compared to Rhode Island.

The name Rhode Island originally applied to what is now known as Aquidneck Island - a small part of the state of Rhode Island (and home of fabulous Newport). Aquidneck Island is approximately 40 square miles. So it would be fair to say that the new Rhode Island is 30 times the size of the old Rhode Island.