Tomas Pueyo offers a very interesting article examining how the traditional map of the world, the Mercator projection, is fundamentally flawed in its presentation of the actual size of nations and continents. He offers many examples to illustrate the true size of countries in comparison to each other. Here are three: click any image for a larger view.
1. The immense size of Africa compared to six other very large nations/regions.
2. Somalia, Japan and New Zealand compared to the US East Coast.
3. The Pacific island of New Guinea compared to Britain.
There are many more fascinating comparisons at the link. Highly recommended.
Peter
I always found it interesting how William Penn's initial land grant in the New World was larger than England (at the time presumably excluding Scotland and Ireland, not sure about Whales).
ReplyDeleteIt was given because the king couldn't repay a debt he owed Penn...
Here's another such site: https://thetruesize.com/
ReplyDeleteNeat interactive map. Enter the name of a country, and then drag it to the equator to compare with others.
Visual learning is an important method. However, it should not be to the detriment of other methods; making note of Lat/Long to determine distances (and relative size) is a skill, I fear, falling by the way.
DeleteAs example, note than none of the graphic projections accurately depict the size of the Pacific Ocean across all latitudes. Another example is the high latitudes above 70 degrees.
Eye opening for those who have never traveled or seen the real sizes of their countries.
ReplyDeleteThe Mercator projection was designed for a specific purpose, namely long-distance sea travel. It was designed so that ships travelling on a specific compass course would travel in a straight line on the map, thus aiding navigation from A to B.
ReplyDeleteThis purpose means that other aspects of the map are warped. In particular area is not treated consistently, with shapes of the same area on the globe increasing in size as they get closer to the poles. The old wall maps reflected this by showing in one corner a scale plot that varied with latitude (granted many will not spot this, and many who do will not spot the implications, and many who do that will still absorb the apparent areas by osmosis).
For navigational purposes the Mercator projection is probably still useful. For purposes where an understanding of relative areas is required, it has long-since been preferable to use another projection which respects relative area.
Nigh on every 5th grader when I when was that age were well acquainted with the various attempts to depict a sphere on paper, including the errors thereof.
ReplyDeleteWhile it provokes curiousity, it amounts to not more than parlour games these days. So, is it that Tomas is rediscovering what once was common knowledge?
BTW: I admit to a lifelong infatuation with paper maps and charts. So much so that I am apt to turn off electronic nav devices in deference to a chart on my lap.
Oh, I see. Apparently it is important to Tomas to mention the amount of wealth of a country relative to the depiction of the same. Should we also expect the mention of skin color when speaking of map making.
ReplyDeleteThere's always an angle. Frankly, I am weary of always a point to made, however irrespective that point to the main topic.
And on #2, NZ is only about 5 million people in all that space.....
ReplyDelete@Magson - and less than 1 million on the larger south island (termed The Mainland here in sunny New Zealand by the flyover ...).
ReplyDeleteThat is why billionaires have bought up land here and installed doomsday bunkers. Do they know something we don't?
Phil B
The size of the table is less important than what one brings to that table.
ReplyDeleteIt's never the land, nor the area.
ReplyDeleteIt's always about the inhabitants thereof.
As has been noted many times and places, 90% of everything is crap.
And where people are concerned, that 10% may be over-generous.
It's probably down in the very low single digits.
For me, the craziest thing about Mercator is how horribly it distorts both the size and the location of Greenland.
ReplyDeleteAnd, even though I know better, "great circle" routes still just look weird.
- jed
The US seems to be missing Alaska in the Africa picture.
ReplyDelete