r/europe • u/MarktpLatz Lower Saxony (Germany) • Feb 21 '17

What do you know about... the UK?

This is the sixth part of our ongoing weekly series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Todays country:

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The UK is the second most populous state in the EU. Famous for once being the worlds leading power, reigning over a large empire, it has recently taken the decision to exit the EU.

So, what do you know about the UK?

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u/deuxiemement Feb 23 '17

They are NOT the second most populous state in the EU! They are behind Germany and France, am I wrong?

Anyway; I want to pay tribute to my favorite scientist, since I'm sure everything has already been said. James Clerk Maxwell unified magnetism and electricity with his famous equations. It's really badass. Ludwig Boltzmann (quoting from Goethe) said aboutthis work, “Was it a god who wrote these lines…”

It's impressive how many things derive from there: electricity and magnetism, our theory of light, and in fine special relativity.

He was scottish.

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u/[deleted] Feb 23 '17

Slightly larger than France proper, I think, but still slightly smaller than France official - once overseas territories are counted. Not much in it. Used to be France was clearly ahead, but we've had some rapid population growth in recent years.

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u/deuxiemement Feb 24 '17

Ah perhaps, since we are 1.4 million people ahead with like 1million in La Réunion alone. But why would you not count the overseas territories? Anyway, you probably won't ever the largest in the EU :(

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u/[deleted] Feb 24 '17 edited Feb 24 '17

Britain never did count overseas territories, since they're not considered part of the country as a rule. There aren't any left with a substantial population now - but we never counted Hong Kong towards the population total, for instance, which would have been another six million or so at the time.

Looking forward it's very unlikely we'll ever be the largest in the EU. There were articles published last year to the effect that higher British fertility rates would mean we overtake Germany some time in the 2030s or 40s; but now we know that by then we'll be out of the EU, of course, so we'd clearly not be the largest in it. And the difference that could make to immigration rates would alter the whole model; Merkel had already blown quite a hole in it by welcoming so many Syrians.

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u/deuxiemement Feb 24 '17

Oh that's interesting, I didn't know that!

In the case of France, you probably know that we own a couple places that are equal to all the places in France. We call them the DROM, and it is really weird to me to not count it, since they are as close to me than, say, Corsica is.

The other kind, the COM, are different, and not counting them is more sensible to me. Even though it's still France, it's not the same as the rest. Perhaps they are not counted? I don't know.

I'm quite sure that when we had real colonies (tunisia for exemple), we didn't count them either.

And yes, I read those articles too, and I was refering to the Brexit.

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u/[deleted] Feb 23 '17

don't forget Faraday, he did a lot of the leg work, but wasn't mathematically minded and Maxwell built a lot of his equations around the work of Faraday.

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u/deuxiemement Feb 24 '17

I don't forget him of course! He was a very good scientist, and a self taught one I believe, wichis impressive, and he impacted science history a lot.

He just doesn't happen to be my favorite scientist, but yeah, he deserves a lot of credit.