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30 Real World Maps That Show The True Size Of Countries
Ever wondered why Greenland looks as big as Africa on the map? It’s because of something called the Mercator projection. Putting a 3-D planet on a two-dimensional world map was a challenge for early cartographers. So, a Flemish geographer and cartographer named Gerardus Mercator came up with a solution for the most accurate world map.
In 1569, he designed an atlas that could be accurately used for navigation purposes. Still, the downside was that his system distorted the size of objects depending on their position relative to the equator.
Because of this, landmasses like Antarctica and Greenland appear much bigger than they actually are. Though there are around 40 types of map projections, from conical to polyhedral and retroazimuthal, depicting the true size of the world, this one is still used the most because of its convenience and simplicity, even by Google Maps. None of these projections can be titled the real world map because they all depict the same Earth through a different lens.
So, what does the real-world map look like? To show how incorrect our understanding of countries by size is, a website called thetruesize.com lets you move land masses into different locations. This helps you understand the true size of countries.
We at Bored Panda played a bit with this tool, and what we found will change your perspective on our planet’s geography. The website lets you juxtapose two countries together to compare their relative size.
Here’s what the real size of countries looks like.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
US Moved Down Next To Australia Looks Unbelievably Small
Yvonne Bernal 8 years ago
Size of contiguous United States Not counting Alaska & Hawaii, the 48 contiguous states occupy a combined area of 3.12 million sq. mi. While Australia is 2.99 million sq miles - I never realized they were so close in size!
#2
Russia On The Equator Is Not A Giant Bear Anymore
#3
If Romania Was An Island In The Arctic Ocean
Ema Sklepic 8 years ago
I don't get why the map was done so inaccuratelly? can somone explain?
#4
Australia Is Way Bigger Than You May Think - It Covers Almost The Whole Of Europe
Is Africa Bigger Than it Appears on the Map?
Yes, Africa is significantly larger than it appears on many traditional maps. An interesting fact about the Mercator projection is that it distorts the sizes of landmasses as they get farther from the equator. This distortion disproportionately enlarges countries near the poles while diminishing the size of equatorial regions. As a result, Africa, which straddles the equator, is typically misrepresented as much smaller than it is in reality.
In reality, Africa covers an expansive area of about 11.7 million square miles. Its vastness is often underestimated on conventional maps, leading to misconceptions about its size and significance. On an accurate world map, Africa would appear three times the size of US.
#5
If Brazil Was In Asia It Would Be Massive
Brian Hermann 8 years ago
The map of the earth is a 2 d representation of a 3 d object, that's why the size is different, because the map is distorted.
#6
Indonesia Would Spread Almost Across The Whole Of Russia
#7
Greenland Is Not So Big When Compared To USA And Brazil
#8
When You Move Canada To South America
Laura Mackenzie-Callow 8 years ago
Nope. The width of South America at its widest point is 2,705 miles (4,353 km), The width of Canada at its widest point is 5,780 miles (9,306 km).
De Lalanda Frazão João 8 years ago
They changed the angle of the position.
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Ross Copeland 8 years ago
I wonder how dumb it's possible to be. People, the images do not show actual size of the countries or even relative scale, that's the point here. The images are designed to show how inaccurate the mercator projection is. In other words, following the scales used in the mercator projection this is what Canada would look like on map were it in South America
Dennis Karl 7 years ago
I wonder the same thing, the tool they are using to show the inaccuracies in the projections is not accurate in itself. If Canada and South America were shown on the same spot of the map they would be distorted by the same amount and Canada would still appear bigger. So in simpler terms this map *doesn't* correctly show what Canada would like on the map were it in South America as they have made errors when scaling.
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Jesús Belinchón 5 years ago
This excellent post only explain with very nice and interesting tools the distorted representation of the world we are used to see. I really cant understand why people can doubt about a fact, even if it has just been explained above, even when someone bothered to develop a site that lets you experience it. Why don’t they just google the surface of the countries? It would avoid them to let us know how limited their reasoning skills are. Very nice post! Good work!
Kirsten Smidt 8 years ago
It's not about how big the countries are bits about how they would be drawn on the map if you change the location. The actual size doesn't change.
Dave Marshall 6 years ago
FOR INSTANCE, Go to GOOGLE EARTH Here https://earth.google.com/web/@55.27343384,-79.31232171,-1514.55079955a,13235866.6003418d,35y,2.32795367h,0t,0r and you will see Not Only the SIZE of Greenland is Different, but ALSO the Angle We Perceive it to Be on the Current Distorted Map, Get it?
Jeff Carter 8 years ago
Canada is the 2nd biggest country in the world after Russia based on size in square miles. Russia is by far the biggest country in the world.
Barry Keleher 8 years ago
Canada is massive and it's still the second largest country in the world behind only Russia.
Noel Corriveau 8 years ago
South America is less than half the width of Canada, how does Canada go from 5700 miles to 2700?? where did those missing 3000 miles go? this is so bogus
JoyceBelieves InJesusChrist 8 years ago
This is all bogus, it''s a ball , slide it anywhere it will be the same size no change, so what is this bs?
Marshall Davies 8 years ago
As someone has already mentioned, Canada has been placed on an angle - so that it aligns more closely with the shape of Brazil
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Carole Herbert 8 years ago
If Canada was the smaller size then air travel time and cost of travel would not be as high as it is now.
Liz Miller 8 years ago
How would Canada be smaller in size? It's still the same size
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Saima Nisbet 8 years ago
Have you read the article at all before spouting the same comment on so many photos? It doesn't appear so as you have failed to grasp the logic of what is being discussed.
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What is the Most Realistic World Map?
The AuthaGraph is considered to be the real world map that shows the true size of countries.
Unlike the Mercator projection, which distorts the sizes of landmasses, the AuthaGraph projection aims to maintain equal area property. This means that the relative size of continents and countries is preserved accurately. This is essential for understanding the true proportions of different regions of the world.
The AuthaGraph projection minimizes distortion by dividing the Earth’s surface into 96 regions, which are then transferred to a tetrahedron. This tetrahedron is unfolded and flattened to create a two-dimensional map.
While no projection can be perfect in preserving both area and shape, the AuthaGraph projection comes really close to showing the real size of countries.
#9
California Moved Onto The UK Shows They're Quite Similar In Size
#10
China Placed On Top Of Russia
#11
Australia Moved Onto North America Becomes REALLY Big
#12
Japan Can Stretch Almost Across Canada
Gordon Weir 8 years ago
It all has to do with putting a round object onto a flat, rectangular presentation. Locations near the poles get stretched and distorted, appearing much larger. The point of the map is that IF Japan was in that particular geographic location (closer to the North Pole), it would look much larger when transcribed onto a flat map.
Why is Greenland So Big on the Map?
Greenland appears disproportionately large on the maps due to an inherent distortion in translating the Earth’s three-dimensional, spherical surface onto a two-dimensional map.
The Mercator projection is widely used for navigational purposes because it preserves angles and, therefore, helps sailors navigate straight lines or constant compass headings. However, it doesn’t preserve area or size accurately, particularly as you move away from the equator.
It exaggerates the sizes of landmasses as they approach the poles, causing polar regions to appear much larger than they are in reality.
Greenland is situated near the North Pole, and as a result, it is significantly distorted on Mercator maps. In reality, Greenland is much smaller than it appears on traditional maps. It covers an area of approximately 850,000 square miles, making it only slightly larger than Saudi Arabia (830,000 square miles).
#13
Antarctica Is Not So Much Larger Than Brazil
#14
This Is How India Changes As You Move It North
Yvonne Bernal 8 years ago
Wholly Molley! No wonder I get so many customer service agents in India.... that is one HUGE country.
#15
Canada Moved Down Onto The US Reveals That Both Countries Are Pretty Much The Same Size
Katherine Dagold 8 years ago
but 2/3rds of Canada is uninhabitable because it's in the f-ing article circle.
#16
How This All Works
Final score:
26points
Tom Watson 8 years ago
You should move this to the top for the dimwits. This is a great series of posts. Thanks for sharing - fun stuff :D
Is the True Size Map Accurate?
The True Size Of… is an interactive tool that lets you visually compare landmass. It provides a more accurate representation of landmass sizes and minimizes distortion.
#17
USA Compared To Europe
#18
If Poland Was An Island In The Norwegian Sea
#19
The US Could Easily Cover The Whole Of Canada But It Becomes Much Smaller When It's Moved South
#20
When You Move Mexico Onto Greenland Its Size Increases Dramatically
#21
If Lithuania Was An Island In The Barents Sea And Artic Ocean
#22
Moving UK North And South Reveals How It Actually Compares To Other Countries
#23
Democratic Republic Of The Congo When You Move It North
#24
How The Size Of Russia Changes As You Move It South
#25
#27 Tiny Iceland Compared To New York
Final score:
16points
#27
Let Me Just Make This Easy; The Issue Is Peters (accurate) Vs Mercator (inaccurate).
Final score:
13points
Thorfinn Tait 8 years ago
"Peters" (actually Gall-Peters, as Gall came up with the projection long before) is no truer than Mercator overall. The key phrase here is area: Gall-Peters is designed to preserve relative areas, while Mercator preserves direction and shape. "True representation of land area" and "Incorrect/false representation of land area" are not entirely false statements, but they are too easily read as "Gall-Peters good, Mercator bad!" Which is simply not the case. But despite the famous West Wing scene, in fact there are many better projections than Gall-Peters for showing the whole world — and they have been and continue to be in use in most major publications related to maps and geography for many, many years. There's no single most popular projection, but Mollweide, Winkel Tripel, and perhaps Robinson remain some of the most common. In short: each projection has its own uses, and its own shortcomings. Mercator was never meant to be the only projection ever used.
#28
Alaska Doesn't Seem So Big When Compared To 48 Contiguous States
#29
Texas Moved On Top Of Alaska Shows That They're Almost The Same Size
jason_th_wilson 8 years ago
By almost the same size do you really mean less than half as big as Alaska?
#30
You Cannot Make Legitimate Size Comparison Unless You Are Doing So On An Equal Area Map
Final score:
10points
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Intensive Panda 8 years ago
This is widely known phenomenon: the problem with our world maps is that we try to map a round object on a flat surface. As far as I know, there is no mathematical method to map it 1:1. Because of this setup, our view on countries on world maps are distorted. Also nice fact: depending on where you buy your map, it's different everywhere, as each country places itself in the middle of the map
Gabrielle B Gagné 8 years ago
Fun & true fact : Canada don't place himself in the center on the map, we actually put the Atlantic Ocean/Europe in the center (like #12; #14). This way we don't hurt anyone.
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Erik Bowie 7 years ago
One thing that never amazes me is the ignorance of people. :)
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Serena Olij 8 years ago
Too bad the countries of the African continent are so underrepresented in the compared photo's. As far as I know they represent a very big part of the world in actual size!
Keweda Pinnock 7 years ago
EXACLTY my thought. Interesting that it's the only land mass not shown.
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Milos Gajic 8 years ago
It is a funny and tragic thing at the same time that SO many people don't understand how the geographic projection works. This is elementary school knowledge people, at least where I come from - in fifth grade when children start learning geography they are taught the basics first - like shape of the Earth, the map projections, rotation and revolution of the Earth and it's consequences, etc...
Stan McMunich 8 years ago
Thank you Mr Mercator for giving generations a completely wrong view of the world.
Lou Wow 8 years ago
I don't fully understand this. Can the publisher please explain? I get how California is about the the same size as the UK but the rest are puzzling.
John Ashley 8 years ago
Map distortions are caused by trying to project features on a sphere onto a flat surface. Globes are better for size comparisons between countries and/or continents. About the best map to view earth's features with little distorionon a flat surface is a Bucky Fuller dymaxion map.
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Laurentiu Jinga 7 years ago
I don't get it. In #28 (Alaska next to the 48 Contiguous States) Alaska (moved South) looks like half (of 48 Contiguous States) and in #29 Texas (moved North) alone looks as the whole Alaska? It shouldn't scale with the same percentage if you move/compare to the North or South of it's original position?
Pokoirl YaSe 6 years ago
Sigh .. Read about the Merc projection. But I will explain, Texas is closer to the equator so it looks smaller than it should compared to other states. So don't imagine the USA as havin'the same scale.
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Kelsey Clinton 7 years ago
I think you failed to properly explain how you've moved countries around but that they don't actually appear that way in real life (like the Indonesia on Russia map.) I can see a lot of people coming to this page, not reading the intro paragraph, and just looking at the maps and thinking "Wow, Romania's huge!" You really need to make sure that people understand what they're looking at, that intro paragraph does not make it clear for most people that these are not actual sizes. Trust me, my 8th grade students would absolutely NOT read that intro and just look at the maps and take them as fact.
Rosangela Carchen Cezario 3 months ago
Hi, I don't believe in a globe, I'm a FLAT EARTH believer, so I also believe that all these maps are wrong. I just wonder if some days we will find a true map of the Earth so people will not be deceived anymore.
Bill Bolton 4 years ago
Globes have accurate proportionality. But it is difficult to fold one and store it. Although there are some one may deflate.
Josep Barceló 5 years ago
Perhaps too many examples of the very same concept. The Mercator projection distorts sizes. That's all.
Steve Milenkovic 6 years ago
BORING PANDA IS STUPID,LIKE IT WAS SELLING OF ALASKA FOR US RUSSIANS,OR REVOLUTION,BECAUSE FINLAND UKRAINE POLAND,BELARUS KAZAKHSTAN,ETC.,OR 100 YEARS BEFORE.....LIKE THEY DIDNT,BUT EXPLAIN ME PANDA IN KALIFORNIA,THERE IS STILL OLD RUSSIAN MILITARY KAMP..DID YOU HEARD OF THAT MIRACLE??,NOW RUSSIA HAS 17 MILION SQUARE KM AND 11 TIME ZONES,SO IT BIGEST,COUNTRY,WITH STILL ONE OF BEST STATE SEC. ANALITIC, SERVICES,AND ONE OF GREATEST PATRIOTISM AFTER ALL IN RUSSIA NOW LIWES 147 MIL PEOPLE,ONE MAN ON 1000KM2,OR MORE?BIGEST OIL,GAS,WATER,URANIUM ETC.AFTER MONGOLS,KATHOLICS,FALL OF FIRST EMPIRE WITH IVAN THE 4TH,SO CALLED TERIBLE,AND TURKS,OTOMAN EMPIRE,PERSIAN EMPIRE,NAPOLEON,KRIMEAN WAR,WW1.,KOMUNIST REVOLUTION,FALL OF ROMANOVS EMPIRE,STALIN LENIN,USSR,WW2,--HITLER,...CHERCHILL,US,COLD WAR,ETC..RUSSIA ALWAYAS,WON,SO IT WAS THE BIGEST COUNTRY,ONLY WILL RISE,NOT FALL,SERTANLY NOT APART,?OR BECAUSE SOME CASE LIKE CHECNIYA, 33 000 KM2....
Elisha Barren 6 years ago
You forgot Africa and have massively bigger it is than some countries and continents.
Kevin Crawford 7 years ago
Bottom line: Buy a globe if you want to see how countries really compare, size wise, to one another. Because a flat map distorts the sizes of continents the further they are from the equator.
Gjuro Kladaric 7 years ago
but, but, but... lands get "higher" on maps if out of equatorial areas... but things on this maps do get "wider", which simply is not true...
Antonio González Trück 7 years ago
As far as I'm concerned all countries have the same world map.
Robin Lupinacci 7 years ago
Just allow that the lower the latitude more accurate the representation. On Mercator an object at 40 degrees is less accurately represented than one at 15 degrees latitude.
Michael Gary 7 years ago
As much as I love maps, why not just make a list of countries showing total square kilometers.....
Pokoirl YaSe 6 years ago
Because countries aren'squares, and width plays a role on how big they appear
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Jason Rider 7 years ago
if you want to see countries as they are sized exactly relative to each other, buy a globe
udi 7 years ago
Any attempt to project the surface of a sphere onto a rectangle necessarily involves involves distortions. There are hundreds of different projections, but one recent projection unusually preserves both the relative size and shape of countries, which people might find interesting: http://www.authagraph.com/projects/description/【作品解説】記事01/?lang=en
Sunshine Asomugha 7 years ago
They didn't want to touch the misrepresentation of Africa's size. 🤔
JC Champalaune 7 years ago
This pictures are still misleading (the other way around compared to "usual" maps). For example, China (10 billion km2) is far from being as big as Russia (17). Here it looks about 80% of its size
Dark Matter 7 years ago
It's interesting you didn't compare the continent of Africa, (just the Congo), hum?
Raymundo WW 7 years ago
Hoax? Rank - Country - Area Sq Km 1Russia17,075,200 2Canada9,984,670 3United States of America9,826,630 4China9,596,960 5Brazil8,511,965 6Australia7,686,850 7India3,287,590 8Argentina2,766,890 9Kazakhstan2,717,300 10Algeria2,381,740
Francis Castiglione 7 years ago
so your saying Sth Africa is actually the same width as the Nth of Africa, and Sth America is wide as the United States? what a load of B.S
Edna Guerrero 8 years ago
why don't you move countries of South America to the northem of earth? still doesn't work for you?
Marco Andreas 8 years ago
This is why I prefer to use maps with the "Gall–Peters projection" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall–Peters_projection
Davo Yoshibima 8 years ago
i would like to see Sudan, Zaire ,Nigeria or even south Africa put on this scale
Ferod. Rosheev 8 years ago
это наебалово, в России 10 часовых поясов, а в Африке 4 но по этой карте они почти равны. Омерикосы опять хуйню подсунули всем - хавайте.
Santhosh Zeus 8 years ago
india map is depicted wrongly . Remember 7-year jail, Rs 100 crore fine for wrong depiction of India map, Check the link below http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/7-year-jail-Rs-100-crore-fine-for-wrong-depiction-of-India-map/articleshow/52133221.cms
Hanam Hamid 8 years ago
I am not so sure with your facts. How did this becomes a fact though?#curious
ҸӲӅӐӪӋӒӍЪ ҶЎԈӚҨӴӔӍӦԜЪ 8 years ago
РОССИЯ САМАЯ ЛУЧШАЯ СТРАНА НА СВЕТЕ! И ВСЕ ОСТАЛЬНЫЕ СТРАНЫ НАМ ЗАВИДУЮТ! 57971f996536f.jpg 
Veronica Daze 8 years ago
Yes but Canada's population is less than the state of California and a lot of their land is uninhabitable.
Mark Farber 8 years ago
Low population, yes, uninhabitable land, no. Look up "Inuit" for further clarification.
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Matthias Pedro Coscoñas 8 years ago
Interested people out there, there is a much better way of mapping the world, called 'Dymaxion Map' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map), which was developed by Buckminster Fuller. He even considered not having a South nor North on his map as it is equated with 'rich/more developed North' and 'poor/undevelopped South'.
Pemberton 8 years ago
I'd like to see the UK placed in East Asia (or next to Japan). Once my British friend said, 'Sometimes British people say Japan is a tiny island country, but in fact the UK is much smaller than Japan.' Is Great Britain (the main island of the UK) bigger than the Korean peninsula?
Ridwan Khan 8 years ago
well to get the most accurate figure... i divide land area (sq mile) of the apparent largest by the smallest... atleast u will see by how many times the largest is bigger than the smallest
Andrea Mackey 8 years ago
I wonder why they did not do Africa. I think people would of been blown out of their mind I'd they saw how big Africa is.
Milos Gajic 8 years ago
Because Africa is close to the Equator and there is very little distortion going on there during the mapping. So Africa is the most accurate drawn continent on the world map.
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Callie Giffin 8 years ago
This is cool but I don't full understand it... Could someone explain
Lars Eighner 8 years ago
The problem is there is no completely accurate way to map a round object on a flat map. Think of trying to wrap a soccer ball as a present with flat wrapping paper (or even try it with a small ball and writing paper). You just cannot do it neatly. You end up with lots or folds or wrinkles, or you have to cut the paper into many slices, and you still have overlap and wrinkles. Well, you could wrap the ball in very stretchy cloth. Then you could write "For Bobby, Happy Birthday!" on the cloth. But when you unwrapped the cloth, the message would be badly distorted. So every flat map of the earth is really a lie because the earth is not flat. The standard flat map makes things near the equator look smaller (in comparison to other places) smaller than they are.
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Grace Barclay 8 years ago
What about Africa? Does it stay the same, because of the position of it being both north & South? Thanks for the interesting take on the world...
Lars Eighner 8 years ago
Because much of Africa is near the equator, it looks much smaller on a flat map than it is actually is.
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Hans 8 years ago
Why? The way maps in Mercator Projection are made lead to wrong impressions. To truly compare sizes, you need images like the ones above, flat maps, or something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_area
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Inbucks Wetrust 8 years ago
:)) Будете много выебываться все будет Россией. Не с чем сравнивать будет.
marcos santiago colombo migliorero 8 years ago
es totalmente cierto, solo hace falta ver como funciona el mapa mundi clasico (el que sigue usando google maps en modo "mapa" por ejemplo") y el de un globo terraquio (o google maps en modo "earth"). Se llama proyeccion de Mercator y es uno de los modos más populares de distorcionar una esfera como nuestro planeta para que pueda ser representada en el plano. A su vez es una representación que obviamente favorece a la posición en el mapa de Europa y Norte América (arriba del mapa y mas grande), por eso se sigue usando tanto.
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Michael Memmelaar 8 years ago
I can't be the only one who wants to see my penis mapped over Greenland.
Intensive Panda 8 years ago
This is widely known phenomenon: the problem with our world maps is that we try to map a round object on a flat surface. As far as I know, there is no mathematical method to map it 1:1. Because of this setup, our view on countries on world maps are distorted. Also nice fact: depending on where you buy your map, it's different everywhere, as each country places itself in the middle of the map
Gabrielle B Gagné 8 years ago
Fun & true fact : Canada don't place himself in the center on the map, we actually put the Atlantic Ocean/Europe in the center (like #12; #14). This way we don't hurt anyone.
Load More Replies... Erik Bowie 7 years ago
One thing that never amazes me is the ignorance of people. :)
Load More Replies... Serena Olij 8 years ago
Too bad the countries of the African continent are so underrepresented in the compared photo's. As far as I know they represent a very big part of the world in actual size!
Keweda Pinnock 7 years ago
EXACLTY my thought. Interesting that it's the only land mass not shown.
Load More Replies... Milos Gajic 8 years ago
It is a funny and tragic thing at the same time that SO many people don't understand how the geographic projection works. This is elementary school knowledge people, at least where I come from - in fifth grade when children start learning geography they are taught the basics first - like shape of the Earth, the map projections, rotation and revolution of the Earth and it's consequences, etc...
Stan McMunich 8 years ago
Thank you Mr Mercator for giving generations a completely wrong view of the world.
Lou Wow 8 years ago
I don't fully understand this. Can the publisher please explain? I get how California is about the the same size as the UK but the rest are puzzling.
John Ashley 8 years ago
Map distortions are caused by trying to project features on a sphere onto a flat surface. Globes are better for size comparisons between countries and/or continents. About the best map to view earth's features with little distorionon a flat surface is a Bucky Fuller dymaxion map.
Load More Replies... Laurentiu Jinga 7 years ago
I don't get it. In #28 (Alaska next to the 48 Contiguous States) Alaska (moved South) looks like half (of 48 Contiguous States) and in #29 Texas (moved North) alone looks as the whole Alaska? It shouldn't scale with the same percentage if you move/compare to the North or South of it's original position?
Pokoirl YaSe 6 years ago
Sigh .. Read about the Merc projection. But I will explain, Texas is closer to the equator so it looks smaller than it should compared to other states. So don't imagine the USA as havin'the same scale.
Load More Replies... Kelsey Clinton 7 years ago
I think you failed to properly explain how you've moved countries around but that they don't actually appear that way in real life (like the Indonesia on Russia map.) I can see a lot of people coming to this page, not reading the intro paragraph, and just looking at the maps and thinking "Wow, Romania's huge!" You really need to make sure that people understand what they're looking at, that intro paragraph does not make it clear for most people that these are not actual sizes. Trust me, my 8th grade students would absolutely NOT read that intro and just look at the maps and take them as fact.
Rosangela Carchen Cezario 3 months ago
Hi, I don't believe in a globe, I'm a FLAT EARTH believer, so I also believe that all these maps are wrong. I just wonder if some days we will find a true map of the Earth so people will not be deceived anymore.
Bill Bolton 4 years ago
Globes have accurate proportionality. But it is difficult to fold one and store it. Although there are some one may deflate.
Josep Barceló 5 years ago
Perhaps too many examples of the very same concept. The Mercator projection distorts sizes. That's all.
Steve Milenkovic 6 years ago
BORING PANDA IS STUPID,LIKE IT WAS SELLING OF ALASKA FOR US RUSSIANS,OR REVOLUTION,BECAUSE FINLAND UKRAINE POLAND,BELARUS KAZAKHSTAN,ETC.,OR 100 YEARS BEFORE.....LIKE THEY DIDNT,BUT EXPLAIN ME PANDA IN KALIFORNIA,THERE IS STILL OLD RUSSIAN MILITARY KAMP..DID YOU HEARD OF THAT MIRACLE??,NOW RUSSIA HAS 17 MILION SQUARE KM AND 11 TIME ZONES,SO IT BIGEST,COUNTRY,WITH STILL ONE OF BEST STATE SEC. ANALITIC, SERVICES,AND ONE OF GREATEST PATRIOTISM AFTER ALL IN RUSSIA NOW LIWES 147 MIL PEOPLE,ONE MAN ON 1000KM2,OR MORE?BIGEST OIL,GAS,WATER,URANIUM ETC.AFTER MONGOLS,KATHOLICS,FALL OF FIRST EMPIRE WITH IVAN THE 4TH,SO CALLED TERIBLE,AND TURKS,OTOMAN EMPIRE,PERSIAN EMPIRE,NAPOLEON,KRIMEAN WAR,WW1.,KOMUNIST REVOLUTION,FALL OF ROMANOVS EMPIRE,STALIN LENIN,USSR,WW2,--HITLER,...CHERCHILL,US,COLD WAR,ETC..RUSSIA ALWAYAS,WON,SO IT WAS THE BIGEST COUNTRY,ONLY WILL RISE,NOT FALL,SERTANLY NOT APART,?OR BECAUSE SOME CASE LIKE CHECNIYA, 33 000 KM2....
Elisha Barren 6 years ago
You forgot Africa and have massively bigger it is than some countries and continents.
Kevin Crawford 7 years ago
Bottom line: Buy a globe if you want to see how countries really compare, size wise, to one another. Because a flat map distorts the sizes of continents the further they are from the equator.
Gjuro Kladaric 7 years ago
but, but, but... lands get "higher" on maps if out of equatorial areas... but things on this maps do get "wider", which simply is not true...
Antonio González Trück 7 years ago
As far as I'm concerned all countries have the same world map.
Robin Lupinacci 7 years ago
Just allow that the lower the latitude more accurate the representation. On Mercator an object at 40 degrees is less accurately represented than one at 15 degrees latitude.
Michael Gary 7 years ago
As much as I love maps, why not just make a list of countries showing total square kilometers.....
Pokoirl YaSe 6 years ago
Because countries aren'squares, and width plays a role on how big they appear
Load More Replies... Jason Rider 7 years ago
if you want to see countries as they are sized exactly relative to each other, buy a globe
udi 7 years ago
Any attempt to project the surface of a sphere onto a rectangle necessarily involves involves distortions. There are hundreds of different projections, but one recent projection unusually preserves both the relative size and shape of countries, which people might find interesting: http://www.authagraph.com/projects/description/【作品解説】記事01/?lang=en
Sunshine Asomugha 7 years ago
They didn't want to touch the misrepresentation of Africa's size. 🤔
JC Champalaune 7 years ago
This pictures are still misleading (the other way around compared to "usual" maps). For example, China (10 billion km2) is far from being as big as Russia (17). Here it looks about 80% of its size
Dark Matter 7 years ago
It's interesting you didn't compare the continent of Africa, (just the Congo), hum?
Raymundo WW 7 years ago
Hoax? Rank - Country - Area Sq Km 1Russia17,075,200 2Canada9,984,670 3United States of America9,826,630 4China9,596,960 5Brazil8,511,965 6Australia7,686,850 7India3,287,590 8Argentina2,766,890 9Kazakhstan2,717,300 10Algeria2,381,740
Francis Castiglione 7 years ago
so your saying Sth Africa is actually the same width as the Nth of Africa, and Sth America is wide as the United States? what a load of B.S
Edna Guerrero 8 years ago
why don't you move countries of South America to the northem of earth? still doesn't work for you?
Marco Andreas 8 years ago
This is why I prefer to use maps with the "Gall–Peters projection" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall–Peters_projection
Davo Yoshibima 8 years ago
i would like to see Sudan, Zaire ,Nigeria or even south Africa put on this scale
Ferod. Rosheev 8 years ago
это наебалово, в России 10 часовых поясов, а в Африке 4 но по этой карте они почти равны. Омерикосы опять хуйню подсунули всем - хавайте.
Santhosh Zeus 8 years ago
india map is depicted wrongly . Remember 7-year jail, Rs 100 crore fine for wrong depiction of India map, Check the link below http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/7-year-jail-Rs-100-crore-fine-for-wrong-depiction-of-India-map/articleshow/52133221.cms
Hanam Hamid 8 years ago
I am not so sure with your facts. How did this becomes a fact though?#curious
ҸӲӅӐӪӋӒӍЪ ҶЎԈӚҨӴӔӍӦԜЪ 8 years ago
РОССИЯ САМАЯ ЛУЧШАЯ СТРАНА НА СВЕТЕ! И ВСЕ ОСТАЛЬНЫЕ СТРАНЫ НАМ ЗАВИДУЮТ! 57971f996536f.jpg
Veronica Daze 8 years ago
Yes but Canada's population is less than the state of California and a lot of their land is uninhabitable.
Mark Farber 8 years ago
Low population, yes, uninhabitable land, no. Look up "Inuit" for further clarification.
Load More Replies... Matthias Pedro Coscoñas 8 years ago
Interested people out there, there is a much better way of mapping the world, called 'Dymaxion Map' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map), which was developed by Buckminster Fuller. He even considered not having a South nor North on his map as it is equated with 'rich/more developed North' and 'poor/undevelopped South'.
Pemberton 8 years ago
I'd like to see the UK placed in East Asia (or next to Japan). Once my British friend said, 'Sometimes British people say Japan is a tiny island country, but in fact the UK is much smaller than Japan.' Is Great Britain (the main island of the UK) bigger than the Korean peninsula?
Ridwan Khan 8 years ago
well to get the most accurate figure... i divide land area (sq mile) of the apparent largest by the smallest... atleast u will see by how many times the largest is bigger than the smallest
Andrea Mackey 8 years ago
I wonder why they did not do Africa. I think people would of been blown out of their mind I'd they saw how big Africa is.
Milos Gajic 8 years ago
Because Africa is close to the Equator and there is very little distortion going on there during the mapping. So Africa is the most accurate drawn continent on the world map.
Load More Replies... Callie Giffin 8 years ago
This is cool but I don't full understand it... Could someone explain
Lars Eighner 8 years ago
The problem is there is no completely accurate way to map a round object on a flat map. Think of trying to wrap a soccer ball as a present with flat wrapping paper (or even try it with a small ball and writing paper). You just cannot do it neatly. You end up with lots or folds or wrinkles, or you have to cut the paper into many slices, and you still have overlap and wrinkles. Well, you could wrap the ball in very stretchy cloth. Then you could write "For Bobby, Happy Birthday!" on the cloth. But when you unwrapped the cloth, the message would be badly distorted. So every flat map of the earth is really a lie because the earth is not flat. The standard flat map makes things near the equator look smaller (in comparison to other places) smaller than they are.
Load More Replies... Grace Barclay 8 years ago
What about Africa? Does it stay the same, because of the position of it being both north & South? Thanks for the interesting take on the world...
Lars Eighner 8 years ago
Because much of Africa is near the equator, it looks much smaller on a flat map than it is actually is.
Load More Replies... Hans 8 years ago
Why? The way maps in Mercator Projection are made lead to wrong impressions. To truly compare sizes, you need images like the ones above, flat maps, or something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_and_dependencies_by_area
Load More Replies... Inbucks Wetrust 8 years ago
:)) Будете много выебываться все будет Россией. Не с чем сравнивать будет.
marcos santiago colombo migliorero 8 years ago
es totalmente cierto, solo hace falta ver como funciona el mapa mundi clasico (el que sigue usando google maps en modo "mapa" por ejemplo") y el de un globo terraquio (o google maps en modo "earth"). Se llama proyeccion de Mercator y es uno de los modos más populares de distorcionar una esfera como nuestro planeta para que pueda ser representada en el plano. A su vez es una representación que obviamente favorece a la posición en el mapa de Europa y Norte América (arriba del mapa y mas grande), por eso se sigue usando tanto.
Load More Replies... Michael Memmelaar 8 years ago
I can't be the only one who wants to see my penis mapped over Greenland.
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