Why every world map you’re looking at is Wrong! You will never look at the map of the world the same! by exyle

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academia · @exyle · Jul 25 '16

$2.22

Why every world map you’re looking at is Wrong! You will never look at the map of the world the same!

A couple of weeks ago i ran into this website where you can drag any country over another country on a map to compare sizes. Because a map is 2d and the earth 3d you get some unexpected results and it gives you a cool insight into how big or small some countries actually are. So next time you are thinking of backpacking in Congo, realise it's bigger than Norway, Sweden on and Finland combined!

This is the website: http://thetruesize.com

## I posted some more examples below.

The Mercator projection, the map most commonly seen hanging in classrooms and in text books, was created in 1596 to help sailors navigate the world. The familiar map gives the right shapes of land masses, but at the cost of distorting their sizes in favour of the wealthy lands to the north.

![map](http://home.kpn.nl/bonge008/BLOG/map/5.jpg)

## Here I highlighted 4 country’s. United States, Russia, Egypt and Greenland:

![map](http://home.kpn.nl/bonge008/BLOG/map/1.jpg)

## Now look what happens when I drag Russia over the United States. It gets allot smaller! And it's true because Russia is only 1.8x times bigger than the United States. But on the map its not!

![map1](http://home.kpn.nl/bonge008/BLOG/map/2.jpg)

## An even better example is Greenland. Look how big it is! But what happens if you drag it over Egypt. It’s only twice the size of Egypt! Pretty cool right.

![map2](http://home.kpn.nl/bonge008/BLOG/map/3.jpg)

The reason for these distortions is that it is impossible to portray the reality of spherical world on a flat map.

## Bonus! This is the Netherlands (where I live) compared to the United States. I placed us in Texas. As you can see we are a very small country. No wonder we Dutch think a two-hour drive is a long drive, it’s enough time to leave the country! Or drive from Rotterdam to Amsterdam and back!

![map1](http://home.kpn.nl/bonge008/BLOG/map/4.jpg)

I thought this was cool and wanted to share. I hope you guys liked it!

Mark

ps. I know Greenland is not a independent country (yet!)

👍 hipster, clement, merlinscat, robertleal, joelinux, drinkzya, treeleaves, jamesbrown, cryptorune, krabgat, jholmes91, exyle, rambogoham, nimblebodhi, ladypenelope1, kman66, sammy242, mephdxa21, angielb, yarly10, earnest, bkdbkd, avleo, vitz81, cryptoz, anik657, kapets123, handmade, inlighten, itay, bennierex, mightypolenta, siberianrebel, nickche, fireballofdoom, luisucv34, medicine, ragnaroek, steelvelvet

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@bennierex · Jul 26 '16

Awesome! Makes me think about navigation lessons many years ago :)

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@busser · Jul 25 '16

Mercator projection makes these strange things

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@inlighten · Jul 25 '16

Interesting I like the 3D, nice work

👍 alexander1

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@itay · Aug 19 '16

$0.06

I upvoted You

👍 noaommerrr

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@jamesbrown · Jul 25 '16

Michael Stevens "Vsauce" did a nice video on this:

https://youtu.be/2lR7s1Y6Zig

👍 jamesbrown, exyle, statman

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@exyle · Jul 25 '16

That video was great! It goes really deep into the subject. Thanks jamesbrown!

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@krabgat · Jul 26 '16

Thanks for the post. One knows there is a distortion, but does not realise the impact. thank for showing it out. Baie Dankie

👍 steemit.tips, chonesta

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@liberosist · Jul 25 '16

That's the challenge of projecting a 3D world onto a 2D surface.

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@lindee-hamner · Jul 25 '16

$0.02

My fourth grade teacher was unfamiliar with this concept and taught us that Antarctica was the biggest continent and that Greenland was bigger than Australia but yet not its own continent. In conclusion, homeschool your kids.

👍 lindee-hamner, mephdxa21

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@exyle · Jul 25 '16

Oops. An honest mistake hopefully by her. Glad you did learn the truth later on!

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@mephdxa21 · Jul 25 '16

For sure!!!

👍 mephdxa21

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@mephdxa21 · Jul 25 '16

Awesome stuff thanks!! I've heard ppl say that Antarctica surrounds the other continents

👍 mephdxa21

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@merlinscat · Jul 25 '16

$0.08

Africa is much bigger than they show on a map also

👍 merlinscat, robertleal, exyle, statman

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@exyle · Jul 25 '16

$0.04

Africa is huge! It's possible to fit China, India, the United States and most of Europe inside Africa.

👍 merlinscat

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@rambogoham · Jul 25 '16

Why didn't you show Australia's map? It has the world turned upside down because in reality there is not such thing as north and south.

👍 rambogoham

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@nimblebodhi · Jul 25 '16

> ps. I know Greenland is not a independent country (yet!)

Lol, is there an independence movement starting there?

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