This interactive map shows how big countries really are and it’s blowing people’s minds
We’re grateful to Caitlin Moran for highlighting this rather wonderful map which shows the real size of countries compared to how they are portrayed on a typical map.
WHAT? Press the button to see the actual, real sizes of countries. Oh Russia, you're so small! WTF Canada? Via @Andr6wMale: https://t.co/s9ZGmBt7Fn
— Caitlin Moran (@caitlinmoran) May 29, 2019
And it really is quite something (click here if you haven’t already).
Here’s a little bit more explanation from the rather fabulous Engaging Data website.
‘The mercator projection is a commonly used projection on computer maps because it has perpendicular latitude and longitude lines (forming rectangles). It is formed by projecting the glob onto a cylinder A variant of the was adopted by Google maps, which helped establish it as the informal standard for web-based maps (although Google maps now uses a globe view, instead of a map projection when zooming out to a very wide view).
‘Areas far from the equator are distorted in terms of their distances and are shown much larger than they actually are. This is one of the major issues with a projection of a globe onto a cylinder area. This is why Greenland, Russia and Canada shrink so much in the animation, they are fairly high in latitude in the Northern Hemisphere.’
And that’s not all.
The Mercator projection make the northern countries look impressively large. They liked that alot. Size matters to the white men who run the world.
— Mounsey. (@rosemeyer1939) May 29, 2019
Also worth nothing that everyone turns into @daraobriain with Mercator projections… pic.twitter.com/k1BCNMmGlw
— Chris (@aRocketDoc) May 29, 2019
In the end, it's hard to represent a 3d object in a 2d image accurately… Hence why flight paths look completely wacky when drawn on a flat map…. pic.twitter.com/mn1r6OsCgx
— Mounsey. (@rosemeyer1939) May 29, 2019
This one’s quite fun, too – direct comparisons between countries: https://t.co/EtcXyIe6PH
— Craig Grannell (@CraigGrannell) May 29, 2019
He’s not wrong you know.
Wow this blew my mind.
— Craig (@CravenRave) May 29, 2019
Except someone thought something wasn’t quite right.
It's still bolox. Britain comes out as the same size /bigger then France on both those maps. It isn't.
— Richard J Holley (@theheartmurmurs) May 29, 2019
Hmm, that’s what we thought too. Anyone?
Lots more engaging data here…
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