When I was a kid in about the 3rd grade (1960-61) one of the cardboard globes in our classroom got damaged and was going to be discarded. I took it home and cut out the countries as best I could (thick cardboard, kids' scissors) and learned the same thing. I find it hard to fathom that anyone who has completed elementary school would be surprised to learn that the Mercator Projection grossly distorted the dimensions of nations.

I found this to be fascinating. Intellectually, I knew Mercator projection distorted perceived size, but I was not aware that the distortion was so dramatic as one neared the poles. Greenland is 1/10 the size it appears on maps!

I guess Africa doesn't have to lie about it's size...

All of this is also at thetruesize.com. Easy, educational, fun site.

Africa was pretty close

If you want to see the actual size of countries....buy a globe. Of course a flat map of a ball is distorted.

So is the light blue or dark blue the correct size and shape?

This is awesome!

I feel like using Mercator projection for the map is cheating. Mercator is useful for wayfinding, hence why Google Maps uses it. But zooming out gives a weirdly distorted map. Most overview maps use different projections. I'm not used to seeing a Greenland thát big on a map, or such a large Antarctica. This makes the difference way bigger

Fascinating. I knew of the distortion, but this is a great way to bring it home.

This is totally inaccurate. Alaska is not that small at all. It literally covers almost half of the USA.

wack

Maps distort for a reason. Different projections serve different purposes. The Mercator projection is fabulous for navigation by sea.

it is hard to stretch a cut-out from a sphere and put it flat on a 2 dimensional surface...interesting article & perspectives...

indonesia looks the same

Who uses a map like this? Greenland the same size as Africa? So weird.

Even the "correct" sized ones aren't correct. They're 2D projections of a 3D surface, and they're just using two different kinds of projections. A globe is the most accurate, except that the elevation is always scaled up on a globe, otherwise the globe would appear essentially flat.

what is with BP, another article that doesn't make any sense. this panda is going to give them time to get their act together. it's getting rather confusing. Signing out until you get your act together.

Dummys, dummys, dummys. How do you take a sphere and project it on a plane?......With imperfections. Various projections are used for different purposes...it is not a plot idiots It is geography morons!!!!!

USA=2,800 miles east to west coast. Canada=5,500 miles. How is this new map accurate?

Lol wut? This doesn’t even make sense

These kind of posts and the falt earthers should stop. First nothing in this post is useful, second it's not even true, third.. stop, just stop.

This is stupid. Why even post this?

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Dumb article that completly ignores every photo and film taken of the globe from the ISS. Actual size? Wtf does that even mean, actual size? I live in Sweden near a big lake, our biggest actually, which is not on this dudes imaginary map: does that mean that the lake - which I have seen and touched too - in fact doesn't exist? ARE WE ALL IMAGINARY?? Edit: Trying to understand this article but it's still just so dumb. What's the point? I need more info. Downvote me all you want, this article is dumb AF.

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What's really weird is that the whitest the places are the more they shrink. This is anti-caucasian brainwashing in action. Proud of my color and my origins. F**k the rest. F**k this.