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From the Wikipedia article for Khone Phapheng Falls:

It is the widest waterfall in the world at $10783$ metres ($35376$ feet or $6.7$ miles) in width from one edge of its multiple channels to the other.

But on Google Maps the longest distance I measure is only $0.3$ miles. Why is it incorrect?

Khone

Khone2

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    $\begingroup$ I was going to suggest following the references in the wikipedia article but the seem to not be pointing at the right places anyway. $\endgroup$
    – GrapefruitIsAwesome
    Commented Sep 3, 2023 at 12:08
  • $\begingroup$ I think the answer is very simple: Google tags often don't hit the reality of the feature. Try zooming out and going to the left... more waterfalls.. which I'm guessing are truly considered the same falls complex? $\endgroup$
    – JeopardyTempest
    Commented Sep 3, 2023 at 19:35
  • $\begingroup$ When I tried to find the distance between Khone Phapheng and Sopheakmit waterfalls it gave $6.7$ miles which equals to $10783$ meters! But how are those considered a single waterfall? There are huge distances between each waterfalls in the path. $\endgroup$
    – Snack Exchange
    Commented Sep 3, 2023 at 22:38
  • $\begingroup$ well we can start with you only measured one branch of the waterfall. It is a waterfall on a braided river, And you only have a single image (thus only a single point of time), of one section of it. Go back ot google earth and zoom out. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Sep 4, 2023 at 12:59
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    $\begingroup$ @SnackExchange they are the same waterfall because it is a braided river thus the same river falling over a single landform. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Sep 4, 2023 at 13:00

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Here's another view illustrating what is said above: Khone Phapheng Waterfall

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    $\begingroup$ This is certainly a visual illustration that helps us understand to some degree 1) the complexity of the falls, 20 that the "width" direction of the falls is almost parallel to the river direction after it, and 3) there are "little bits" of falls far from the "main" part, but it doesn't get us to Wikipedia's 10783 meters with this view from one direction only, and with this perspective direction (foreground much closer than background) we can't even assign it a scale for measurement. Do you think you can add some more information so we can understand how the widths is defined and measured? $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Sep 5, 2023 at 20:28
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    $\begingroup$ Also, we should always credit the original sources of images we use in Stack Exchange. If it's your own work just make a quick note of that, but if it's from somewhere else please add a link or citation that properly credits the image's source. I do see some small writing in the lower-left corner but the resolution is too low for to read clearly, and we should write out the attribution explicitly in text rather than it only being embedded in the image. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Sep 5, 2023 at 20:30
  • $\begingroup$ The near $11$ km width is from one edge of one of the falls to the last fall. But it also includes the rocks between them! Shouldn't only the sum of widths of falls be measured? As I said in one comment I also found $6.7$ miles from Sopheakmit fall to Khone Phapheng fall on Google Maps. But it includes the rocks too. $\endgroup$
    – Snack Exchange
    Commented Sep 5, 2023 at 23:06

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