Exciting factlets o' the day
I saw this on Wikipedia the other day:
"During the Cold War, the United States developed a geopolitical interest in Greenland, and in 1946 the United States offered to buy Greenland from Denmark for $100,000,000, but Denmark refused to sell".
Via the miracle of the Measuringworth calculator, that equates to anything from $874,862,903.23 (GDP deflator) to $6,499,279,927.99 (relative gdp).
By contrast, Alaska went for $7.2m back in 1867, or a price ranging from $95,627,209.94 to $12,462,059,710.40. Going further back, the bargain that was the Louisiana Purchase was $15m in 1803, or anything from $274,488,136.46 to $448,977,772,987.67.
Comparing areas we have 828,000 sq miles for Louisiana, 663,268 sq miles for Alaska and 836,109 sq miles for Greenland, so based on the low-balled current value, Louisiana went for $331.5 per square mile, Alaska for $144.2 per square mile and Greenland would have gone for a rather impressive $1046.35. Running with the high-end values, Louisiana comes out on top at $542,243.70 per sq mile, followed by Alaska at $18,788.88 and Greenland at the bottom of the heap at $7,773.24.
Should Uncle Sam fancy putting in another bid, the Danish national debt is in the regiuon of $24 billion at the moment.
I would have a look at the Gadsen Purchase too, but life is too short.
Labels: fun with statistics, Greenland, United States
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on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 3:24 pm.
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Related factlet:
When the Germans invaded Denmark during WW2 the danish ambassador in Washington made a personal deal with the USA, allowing them to build air bases at Thule and Stromford, in exchange for the provision of food and fuel for the people of Greenland until the war ended. Source: "The adventures of Colonel Daffodil" by Roy Redgrave
Frank - a splendid addition. Much appreciated.
Can't help thinking that our spiced-ham rich friend above will not have impressed potential business with his or her grammar.
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