Countries where the sun never sets

+2
I had an idea for a neat quiz where you have to guess all of the countries in the world where the sun never sets, like the old adage, "The sun never sets on the British Empire." Unfortunately, it seems the only country for which this still holds true is France.

I took a pretty unforgiving definition of the concept, deciding that "never" means never. If at any minute, the sun is setting or is below the horizon for all of the territories of a country (I didn't count claims on the Antarctica mainland because nobody takes those seriously) at any day of the year, then it is disqualified. The United States comes close, but for an hour during the December Solstice (and presumably the surrounding days), everything from the Virgin Islands to Guam are shrouded in darkness. For the UK, the two farthest points are Cyprus (the British parts) and the Pitcairn Islands, both of which are darkness with Britain in between them. Seriously, it's actually astounding how Cyprus, the Falklands, and the Pitcairn Islands all line up right near the edge of night. Norway also came close with their great variety in latitude (Svalbard in the North to Peter I Island in the South), but unfortunately they all share similar longitude, so during the equinoxes Norway and her dependencies share a night.

I just thought it was interesting that only France qualified. Not very good quiz material. If you think I missed something, go ahead and comment.
12 Comments
+2
Level 51
Feb 4, 2021
Interesting...... 🧐 🧐
+1
Level 52
Feb 4, 2021
Britain.
+1
Level 52
Feb 4, 2021
You seem to have missed the British Indian Ocean Territory.
+7
Level 52
Feb 4, 2021
The following map shows the extents of the modern-day country and territories. I'm pretty sure the sun is always up in someplace here.

+1
Level 60
Feb 4, 2021
RLL?
+3
Level 70
Feb 4, 2021
You're right! My eyes must've skipped right over that on the map.
+2
Level 78
Feb 4, 2021
What about the British Indian Ocean Territory (aka Diego Garcia) and its territories in the Caribbean (Virgin and Cayman Islands, Montserrat etc. The UK still comes close.
+2
Level 59
Feb 4, 2021
This is a really nice blog, although the only things that I would suggest is a little bit more text to read so it doesn't just take a minute to finish reading it, and maybe think of a nice format to use to make it look nicer.
+5
Level 74
Feb 4, 2021
No. This blog is exactly the type of thing that the blog feature was meant for, no improvements needed. Great job QuantumMechanist, as always.
+1
Level 14
Feb 17, 2021
Yes, Ethaboo444, this is good formatting and all blogs don't always have to be long.
+6
Level 55
Feb 4, 2021
Nice, however, the Sun doesn't actually set on the British Empire. Now, I don't really want to explain this but in the book "What if" by Randall Munroe, there is a section about this.
+2
Level 70
Feb 4, 2021
Thanks for the correction! Love that book!