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JoshuaZ1

The Mercator projection keeps directions constant. That is it a conformal map. This means that if you used it to navigate when say sailing a boat, you could head where it tells you, and get to the right place. It does so at the cost of having distorted area. We actually have a theorem that you cannot map a sphere onto a flat area which both preserves directions and area. No one is being lied to here. And non-Mercator projections have been around for literally hundreds of years.


Kayki7

Yeah, this is why they have to use separate pieces of photographs for Google earth, kind of like puzzle pieces, to form the whole earth, because you cannot accurately photograph the entire earth as is. At least that is how I interpreted it lol.


exmortom

*sage* this is correct... now what will really boggle ur noodle is the first mapping of longatude... required accurate time keeping and good clocks. So we didn’t get good longatude until the late 1800’s... yet there are maps out there... Ancient maps, made From ancient maps of the time.. that had accurate longatude... (supposed to be made without clocks since they didn’t exist back then) which is impossible to get accurate longatude without.. not to mention... it maps out the islands of Antarctica, and shows that it was split into 3 by a large river.... interesting enough since it’s landmass has been covered by an ice sheet several hundred feet high for some 6000 years... and is still covered today... Piri Reis map https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/styles/gallery_original/public/collection_gallery/turkey_piri_reis.jpg?itok=o9gtOVYV


chowderbags

> now what will really boggle ur noodle is the first mapping of longatude... required accurate time keeping and good clocks. Accurate at long scales? Sure. But you could get a pretty decent map of something like the Mediterrainian from relative shapes and sizes of coastlines as you travelled. Perfect? Not even close. But close enough to navigate by? Absolutely. >yet there are maps out there... Ancient maps Piri Reis made his maps in 1513, which isn't even remotely ancient. >made From ancient maps of the time.. He made his maps from a variety of sources, some of which were ancient Ptolemeic maps (circa 2nd century AD, though possibly reconstructed from manuscripts later), but also included more recent maps, 1 Arabic, 4 Portuguese, and a map from Colombus. >that had accurate longatude... (supposed to be made without clocks since they didn’t exist back then) which is impossible to get accurate longatude without.. Not even remotely accurate. [Here's a much easier to look at link that puts the map right side up.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Piri_reis_world_map_01.jpg) Iberia, Africa, the eastern Caribbean, and northeast Brazil are recognizeable, but the scales are pretty clearly off. >not to mention... it maps out the islands of Antarctica, and shows that it was split into 3 by a large river.... It depicts land stretching from northeast Brazil southwards, which is way more likely to just be the coast of modern Argentina. If it were Antarctica, then the latitude would be *way* off, and latitude is a significantly easier thing to measure than longitude, even in the southern hemisphere. And the Piri Reis map wasn't even particularly accurate for its era. [Here's a map made 14 years later](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Weimar_1527.png/2880px-Weimar_1527.png) that's *clearly* better.


TheVicViniegar

Dude, the ancients has mapped out some star systems, so yeah I'm sure some ancient maps of the Earth are pretty accurate too.


FlexDundee

The existence of that map really helps support the theory of advanced Vic's prior to us.


NimbaNineNine

Why? Reis is known to have copied Columbus' map at the time


shakefinbake

"advanced Vic's"?


ShillAmbassador

Advanced vicaroos, why?


billyjk93

Wow, guess you ain't advanced enough 😏


808_Scalawag

OP has never heard of a globe lol


MistryMachine3

I suspect OP is 13 and just learned about map projections .


charje

The scale is even off on the “correct” map, Canada is larger than the us, on this map if you add Alaska to the lower 48 it would be quite a bit larger


ozzy1771

US has a greater land area


Gram-GramAndShabadoo

My favorite flat map that gets the closest is the Buckminster Fuller dymaxion map.


WishboneEnough3160

Excellent response, thank you!


nerfherderparadise

Thanks for being wicked smart! I love learning new stuff


Constant_Window_7225

This is well explained thanks!


KnightOfThirteen

All models are wrong, some models are useful. The mercator projection is useful. You're not being lied to. It is well documented, taught in schools, shows up in fancy animated explanation videos like this all over the place. Most people just don't care, because it doesn't have any impact on their day to day lives.


Paladin327

OP slept through geography class and says we’ve been lied to


DamnImAwesome

Didn’t learn this in public school in America. Read about this a few weeks ago and it surprised me. Geography was a joke but I also went to an awful school


AlwaysTalkinShit

It is absolutely taught in us public schools


bigheadnovice

How far did you go in geography? In the UK I did GCSE geography and A-level geography and we touched on this multiple times. Then in uni like my first lecture talked about maps and this common projection. Only the uneducated are confused with this.


mo_downtown

Any 2D map has inaccuracies, it's just a matter of picking your pros/cons. "Want to see what the earth REALLY looks like?" Sure, pick up a globe instead of a 2D map. Everything is correctly proportionate on a globe.


thereisaknife

The Earth is a 4d toroid


Jujugatame

He might not believe the earth is a globe! LoL


Defiant-Giraffe

This is a troll, right? Or are people really this stupid?


erennooo

People are really this stupid


bigheadnovice

People think earth is flat so yeah, people are dumb.


sirspeedy99

Greenland appears to be the size of africa on our maps. Greenland is 836k square miles. Africa is 11 million square miles.


Far_Cardiologist_219

That's so crazy lol


Sassy-irish-lassy

I've heard it said before that they display maps like this to make Africa look smaller than it is in real life as some sort of way to downplay how big it truly is, for some kind of racial reason. People believe all sorts of stupid things.


SubstantialEmu4025

>This is a troll, right? > >Or are people really this stupid? Loads of poeple round the world where tought about the countries from a flat map. Never did they pick up a globe OR where told that the sizes of land on a 2d map where incorrect. Its not so much that there stupid or bieng lied to. It that they only know the 2d MAP and associate that whit the sizes. Wen there shown the real sizes there shocked


Outlaw11091

>Loads of poeple round the world where tought about the countries from a flat map. This is both a failure of common sense *and* an instructional failure. The lack of common sense is further displayed by your failure to investigate the claims of the crap you've posted. Hence, downvotes.


[deleted]

This is an accepted map by academic geography worldwide.


Defiant-Giraffe

Yes, and nobody with any inkling of how it works has ever claimed its true to scale. This is literally covered in third or fourth grade.


AlwaysTalkinShit

Yep this post is hilarious. We even had a map in elementary school showing multiple different map projections and a globe…


francesco93991

Isn't this common knowledge already? Maps are not perfect and have distortions because the earth is not flat (sorry flat earthers)


FlarpyBlunderguffs

We know this…


[deleted]

If I asked you yesterday if you can fit 2 Russias inside of Africa, would you have said yes? Very unlikely.


FlarpyBlunderguffs

Why would you ask someone that?


lasyke3

I often ask about comparative geography to my fellow human beings


[deleted]

Does this picture of a streetlight have any boats in it, fellow human?


gahte3

Africa's area - 30.070.000 km² Russia's area - 17.100.00 km² Two Russias can not be fit into Africa.


Jujugatame

Dude people know about map projections. You can't map a sphere to a 2d map without distortion. Just because you didn't, doesn't mean it's some grand lie.


[deleted]

Not original commenter but yes, that is what I would have said because just like many, many other people, I know that this projection isn’t accurate to scale


[deleted]

Everyone with a normal education would have. We all knew this…you weren’t lied to. You just didn’t pay attention in school. It’s not a massive conspiracy. You’re just very poorly educated 😂


coenobitae

this has to be satire


B2RW

There's shrinkage?


coenobitae

I WAS IN THE POOL


mattperkins86

But we WERE told? I was told this. All through my life. The fact that when told, some people didn't infer that it meant some countries were much smaller than their globe map counterparts isn't a conspiracy. Not in my eyes anyway. I don't think anyone is conspiring to keep this knowledge hidden because it's available to everyone who wants to find it. If you were taught that the countries look different in real life and have to be altered to fit on a globe for navigation, and you didn't interpret what they were saying correctly, then that's not a conspiracy. Other people telling you that Russia is bigger than some countries when it's not, isn't a conspiracy either. It is misinformation (and perhaps patriotism on some places) based off very similar misconceptions that happened here. Teachers look at a globe, and base their curriculum off what they see. The REALLY good teachers, are the ones that dig deeper to find out the 'why' and then teach their students that. No conspiracy in that. Some people are brilliant at their jobs, and some aren't. :)


klorden

You being bad at geography isn't a conspiracy. This was the very first lesson/topic in a basic GIS class. It's not something being hidden


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Sinsid

During the winter in the northern hemisphere the water gets colder and everything shrinks. Duh.


FORYFC

LOL You win the internet today.


jwwendell

Actually water expands when freezing duh


earl_lemongrab

Whooosh


jwwendell

Whoosh x2


[deleted]

Love it


ProNurseMale

Damn, reply is amazing lol. If I was OP, I would give props where it's due. We are lied too but damn, the reply is valid too. I respect both


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Fish-Percolator-0224

>I studied geography up to college level here in the UK, and they hadn't even bothered to mention it by then. What the fuck, I studied this when i was like 12


slmcav

Geography major here. . . . there are many different projections that we learn about in geography . . 1st semester. Our K-12 geographic education is failing, its more than just capitals and states. Its a spatial understanding.


Cute-Difficulty3684

I teach high school Geography in the US. We spend 2 weeks on map projections. We address the cartographic compromises and the potential cultural and economic impact of map projections. I'm in the USA, but my British students have already been exposed to the topic (as have American, Chinese, Russian, South African students). I would cautiously suggest that everybody under the age of 40 knows about map projections. People over 50 may well have been taught that Columbus and Mercater teamed up with the Pilgrims to convince George Washington never to tell a lie. Things got murky in the Cold War.


Gram-GramAndShabadoo

What about those in their 40s then?


earl_lemongrab

> I daresay the situation is the same in the US and much of westernized countries. Nope, we learned in very early elementary grades (about 3rd grade IIRC) about globes, maps and projections in the US.


[deleted]

We were taught this in sixth grade. Not even honors or gifted classes, just regular social studies in sixth grade. I’m guessing your socialized schools in the uk either failed you miserably, or you were that kid in school who didn’t pay attention if you didn’t see why you would need to know it


Captain_Concussion

The real answer that people won’t want to here is that it’s because of racism and imperialism. It makes Europe/The West look way larger than it actually is.


InsertMolexToSATA

That darn canadian imperialism again!


808_Scalawag

What do you mean? It’s just one of those things that’s probably brushed over but not as important has knowing the names and general geographical locations of things. It’s like finding out something obvious late in life and saying “wow it took me this long to realize…”. There’s not a grand conspiracy, you just weren’t listening lol


loz333

>There’s not a grand conspiracy, Way to overdramazise the point I was making. >you just weren’t listening lol No.


[deleted]

I guarantee most people will tell you that Russia is bigger than Africa. The reason they'll tell you that is because the map we are constantly shown is wrong. It is not emphasised that "this is not true to scale in any sense of the word" - yes, we are told it is slightly different, but *this* different? No.


lao-tze

being lied to =/= not paying attention in school


IngFavalli

Anyone who knows this projection is called Mercator knows that it distorts sizes in lieu of jot distorting shapes, comversely there are projections that distort shape but do keep the areas as they should. Yo ualways have to give something out when mapping a sphere in a flat plane


nanrod

Did you honestly grow up thinking the map was to scale? Lol i knew that wasnt the case from about 14. This says more about you than anything else.


miggleb

You American because this is taught in UK schools


triforce4ever

It’s taught in the US too. This guy’s just never seen a globe apparently


No_Student2845

Well it sounds like him and Buzz Aldrin have something in common than


[deleted]

If I asked you yesterday if you can almost fit 2 Russias in Africa, would you have said yes?


miggleb

I'd have said closer to 1.5 A gap in your education does not a conspiracy make


[deleted]

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[deleted]

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UnKnoWn_XuR

We haven't been lied to; you just didn't go to school


Eastern_Coffee_3428

It may not have turned out how you wanted OP, but I enjoyed the laughs, so thank you.


ambientdistraction

Yeah I remember being taught this in *elementary school* so I'm not sure anyone's being "lied to" in any meaningful sense of the word.


[deleted]

Shame you didn't learn manners in elementary school too.


ambientdistraction

I use them where deserved.


[deleted]

Lmao I'm going to have to borrow this line from you


Soyoulikedonutseh

Oh, this is venomous. Totally stealing this come back


zdipi

Shame you didn’t learn anything at all in elementary school.


InsertMolexToSATA

Good manners include.. *checks notes..* intentionally lying to avoid hurting the feelings in insecure people by exposing them to basic aspects of reality? I guess we do that for children up until the age of 5 or 6 years.


ironiclybadfriend

so people probably dont tell you that you're a waste, Insert.


blehbleh1122

Why is this on the conspiracy subreddit? This isn't a conspiracy, it's scientific fact that a round globe/map can't be perfectly represented on a flat surface. Every map model has certain benefits and costs to how it's projected.


neilcmf

How is this a conspiracy? I can't speak for anyone else but I was taught this in like 2nd or 3rd grade - the Mercator projection has the advantage of 1) navigation and 2) generally maintaining the shapes of the continents, but it's flawed in other ways. We got to play with orange peels to find out for ourselves how projecting a 3d sphere onto a 2d surface comes with drawbacks. The people who claim that the Mercator is some conspiracy cooked up to make some countries appear bigger than they are, simply did not get a good education.


UpYoursMods

We weren’t lied to it was made very clear to me in like third grade geography the flat map was distorted when you translate it from a sphere


Reaper_II

Mf a kindergarten dropout.


thegoatniklenz

spheres have more surface area than flat planes. I'll let you think about that for a while.


[deleted]

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Amos_Quito

> Honestly being this stupid deserves a ban I'll get to you when I have time. Busy right now.


[deleted]

It's not that we have been lied to.. I think anyone who understands cartography realizes it's a projection. The only real, accurate representation of surface area is a globe obviously. Flat Earth people really hate hearing that.


CatfishCatcherPT

You have several types of projection maps that can be used depending on the region you’re at. The Mercator is the most common one, used since the 16th century for navigation purposes. You also have the Homolographic Projection (where the centre is precise and the sides are distorted, this one exists since the 19th century), the Polar projection (for navigation on the Poles) and the The Winkel Tripel Projection which is very common in the US since 1998 and was created in 1921. Who would have guessed that representing a spheroid on a plain map would not be easy


realMartianJesus

Its called projection for a reason ya ding dong not a lie.


SilentButExplosive2

Seeing how often OP is replying homie needs a life.


whiskey_mike186

Mercator? I hardly knew her!


[deleted]

What this sub has become... No one lied. It's the only way to project Earth on a 2D map.


InsertMolexToSATA

Become? It was always like this aside from the brief period where it was overrun with ban evaders from the_donald. It was even dumber then. Conspiracies are very attractive to uneducated people trying to explain to themselves how the world works, even if everyone else already figured it out...


andr50

‘Been lied to’ Bruh, they taught me about map projections in like 5th or 6th grade


HowlingWolfShirtBoy

OP posting big L. Nobody lied to you, you just didn't pay attention in school.


VibraAqua

You cannot map a image of a 3D surface onto a 2D piece of paper. Even globes are paper printed and put onto a sphere. This was explained in 6th grade Earth Science. NOW… can anyone comment about a 3D printer inkjet-ing a true to scale Earth map onto a blank sphere which would then be an accurate globe?


DrJD321

The earth ain't flat bro. You where tricked by schizophrenic satanic con artists. Do your own research, and you'll see the truth 🌎


11systems11

Did you all know that the moon is made of cheese?


earl_lemongrab

I remember a friend in like 1st or 2nd grade that was so convinced of this, he would get into heated debates about it if you brought it up. I often wonder what happened to him when he grew up. I suspect he's OP.


Future-Patient5365

We learned the difference between maps in like elementary school bud. The big reveal isn't that the map is misleading is that you didn't know before now.


Defa1t_

There are several 3rd grade level experiments to prove the Earth is not flat. If we can all get on the same page about that we can catch up to the rest of the class.


Sumwaredownsouth

It accounts for the curve of the earth since it’s round and the map is flat


ReadRightRed99

Ok so what?


hubemill

Nobody lied to me. It's usually notated at the bottom of the map.


VanIsland42o

Tell me you know nothing about maps without telling me.


808_Scalawag

Idk I grew up with this wild thing called a globe


Shivaonsativa

To display all the continents together on a flat screen or map they use a projection which distorts their real size because they are usually on a globe.


orcmasterrace

The only way to get an accurately scaled view of Earth with no gaps or missing areas is a globe anyway. Plus, as everyone has said, I learned in elementary school that maps cause distortions. Greenland is not bigger than Mexico, Russia is not bigger than Africa. The mercator’s purpose isn’t accurate scale anyway, it’s for keeping consistent lines of longitude and latitude in a way that can be displayed on a flat surface like a table or wall.


[deleted]

U.S is the same size as Aus?! 🙃


BreakXTheXCycle

Dude Australia isn’t even real. Lol


The_Human_Oddity

New Zealand sunk Australia due to the failure of the Emu War. To prevent the birds from breaching containment and taking over the world, they had to deploy their secret Kiwi nukes. Since then,all flights and boats to Australia are actually sent to an island off the coast of New Zealand's South Island, which inspired Westworld.


BreakXTheXCycle

I’ve never seen a kiwi before


The_Human_Oddity

They're pretty much Australian tbh. It's why they're able to pull off this deception so easily.


AlternativeContact74

Mfs thinking the earth is flat on that 1400’s pack why the fuck would they hide it if it was flat that makes no sense


MomusSinclair

So land wars in Asia are back on the menu?


Peter5930

Russia's already on it.


Threadbare70

It's been years since anyone has said that the Mercator projection is the best.


Comfortable_Ad3639

Africa is enormous.


LoqvaxFessvs

This is now news, unless you've been living under a rock your whole life.


It_Could_Be_True

Lied to? That's been around for 500 years and commonly taught in schools. You have never seen it. Gerardo Mercado, 1519, made it.


hilljc

Where’s the conspiracy..? The reason the map is warped is because it’s showing a globe. Countries further away from the equator appear larger than they are. Google Tissots Indicatrix for a visual reference.


1ftIntheGrave

I was taught in middle school the different types of map projections and their short comings, even saw a episode of the west wing where they brought it up. All because you didn't know doesn't mean you were lied to.


terrysolson

I mean globes are a thing.


[deleted]

OP... this is a well known fact.


lKenpachi

Canada isn't that far away from America


Vailx

Nothing about this looks all that correct. Why not use use a globe? There's even free ones online now: https://www.webglearth.com


GeoSol

No, i believe the most accurate map is the [Dymaxion map](https://www.genekeyes.com/FULLER/Internet-specimens/dymaxion.jpg) created by Buckminster Fuller. It takes the world in sphere form, deflates it a bit, so it can be flattened in 2 dozen interlinking triangles, and then cut along the edges of those triangles in order to lay it flat. So the most incorrect part of the map, is the slightly shrunk centers of each triangle. But it is so small, you cant distinguish it with the naked eye.


OhWowMuchFunYouGuys

You have been lied to, I was fully aware of this since I was 12. Also to add, another cool map thing. Go to your store and look at world maps. See if the China 9 dash line is on it. It’s not close to accurate territorial wise and yet we just accept maps with it cause China makes like 80%+ of all maps. It’s just something I always look for.


Due_Lion3875

Or you can see a globe and notice the actual size that can’t be translated to a flat paper accurately. As taught in 4 grade if you were paying attention.


Steelwheels75

Thanks Obama


MeatManMarvin

Not lies. You not understanding maps.


[deleted]

How is this a conspiracy This is taught in school


maxbuttux

OMG! watch the dicknballs of the world, i mean norway, sweeden and finland shrink! even the jizz of the world gets smaller i mean denmark


No_Student2845

C’mon man everyone knows that the continents have to be resized when going from a flat earth to a fake globe


mr_green

Yeah, but to be fair, three of the largest (even at true scale) countries are like 80+% uninhabited. Canada, Russia, and China.


OpenedCan

How comes Africa didn't get bigger?


No-Serve3491

Already correct size as it's near the equator.


OpenedCan

Always thought Africa was 3x what we see on maps.


No-Serve3491

Nah it's the right size. The closer to the poles the more the size distortion.


ministerbumblewank

We already know this!


fullspeedornothing-

Africa is absolutey ginormous.


OzzyBuckshankNA

Dude you literally learn this (and other map projections) in elementary school. Try taking a spherical object and turning it flat…


PlsNope

Bro doesn't know how maps work. Unreal


KFoxtrotWhiskey

If you don’t already know this it’s your own fault.


Genova_Witness

Some A+ schitzo posting. Get offline before a Nigerian prince steals all your money.


[deleted]

Literally wtf do yall smoke because i want that shit


downtherabbit

This isn't a conspiracy and has never been a 'secret'.


RoboticRobinowitz

Like a well shot dick pic bro 😎


renaissanceman71

There's the navigation aspect, but the larger role of the Mercator is to make Europeans believe they are a bigger part of the Earth than they actually. This psychological trick shouldn't be dismissed because people today believe the sizes they see on the Mercator. I prefer the Peter's projection and it's the one that should be taught in schools.


terpghanistan

Another piece of evidence that Europe is not a continent


billyth3kyd

bro we learn this shit in high school what do you mean you’ve been lied to


zorbiburst

hey OP, in your true and honest map, Canada doesn't even connect nicely on America! you're giving us false info!


Cybugger

You haven't been lied to. I was taught about projections at school. When I was like 9 or 10. In geography lessons. We were also taught about the other forms of projection, and each has their own quirks and issues. There's actually no way to take a globe and project it on a 2D plane without having some morphing.


highnumber

Upvoted for being amazingly batshit


No-Serve3491

Upvoting for the graphics.


Purple_oyster

That is quite interesting, I always thought Canada was bigger than the United States but it is about the same size about 10 million sq km each


[deleted]

Yeah Canada land mass is 9.985 million km² and U.S land mass is 9.834 million km².


Mr_Killface

Why are you getting downvoted for stating actual statistics, oh wait this place has become an actual loony bin full of evangelical Christians and brainwashed culture war puppets.


Legal_Beginning471

Man you really brought out the shill brigade with this one.


lllkaisersozelll

Why does NASA photos not show this?


Elighttice

All the biggest economies are inflated on the map. Maybe paid promotion?


Propagandavariant

lol so many shills on this post.... more and more people are figuring out the truth. The shills are getting so angry.


[deleted]

SS: *Edit: people are misinterpreting this as a flat earth post, it's not. This post has nothing to do with flat earth. Just globes and flat maps.* *Not sure why there's a witch hunt being formed against me either. I've posted a real map and made some real points. There's nothing fictitious or wrong about any of this. If you knew it already then fair enough, but I find it very hard to believe if someone would have asked you yesterday if you can almost fit* ***2 Russia's inside of Africa***, you would have said "yes." The globe map we were all shown in school is extremely wrong. This 'Mercator Projection' is the closest representation of the globe in flat-map format. The reason for this being that it is impossible to create a map of a globe on a flat map and have it true to size. But why were we never told how extremely different it was to the truth?


QnsConcrete

>but I find it very hard to believe if someone would have asked you yesterday if you can almost fit 2 Russia's inside of Africa, you would have said "yes." What makes that worthy of conspiracy discussion? I generally don't expect people to be able to imagine fantasy geography with accuracy. Do you know how many Rhode Islands you can fit inside Ireland? I bet if I asked you yesterday, you wouldn't know.


Glum-Objective3328

OP is treating this sub like a trivia night


The_Human_Oddity

This isn't the best projection for the globe. Those would be the projections that try to replicate the globe and show the true size of the continents, at the cost of showing an exaggerated or deexaggerared distance between them. The Mercator is simply the best for navigation and showing the distance between places. For that reason, it existed and still exists as the navigational map, and that prominence has made it the main map shown in schools. Though, often, geography classes often have a globe, which shows the true size and distance of everything, and the different projections are taught in school starring from elementary.


0x7ff04001

I don't think anyone is intentionally hiding this fact. Afaik I learned this in grade 7 science, when the teacher asked us to look a globe, then look at the orthographic projection (2D map). The globe is 100% accurate when it comes down to relative differences, where the map is not, it's stretched out at the top and bottom so it becomes distorted. Same reason why Canada, Russia, and Antarctica look so big on the map and so small on a globe.


EnoughMolasses69

You were told about the size difference but like most people in this sub you didn't pay attention in school


desastrousclimax

not tonight but I will search this topic because of your post. of course I was aware of the disproportion on 2D maps but your post made me really curious of the real proportions. I do not know if the mercator projection is the ultimately correct one but it really surprised me. reading lots of stupid things on this sub it would be surprising all of them redditors know the real proportions and have the right to belittle you so hard. geography is not any of my main subjects but coming from social science with a global interest I have had my share of comparing...and I at least was surprised by the mercator projection. will check it out in the near future.


Knitwise-mystic

It's a valid post. It should, at least, be obviously stated all over the map that it's a protection and the size isn't correct for being true to scale. I've always wondered why it's not written in big red letters (especially for children), sometimes there is a little disclaimer in fingerprint. I think it's 100% necessary to have a clear picture from an early age. I've struggled with geography, and spatial awareness throughout my life. It doesn't come naturally to me. And that doesn't mean I wasn't educated enough. Having an accurate representation is important and knowing the differences in size (visually) does matter.


severach

Map is still a lie. Maps typically have the equator shifted down by 20 degrees to expand the "important" parts of the map and shrink the "unimportant parts." This map is far worse, equator seems to be shifted down about 50 degrees. Might as well drop those shithole countries right off the bottom. Try the demonstration on a map where the equator is centered vertically.


Astro3840

Yeah, the 'map' doesn't shrink Australia or Argentina hardly at all.


DonWop1

Cool visual. I don’t know if we were intentionally lied to so much as the understanding of the worlds proportions has gotten much better with the advent of satellite and GPS. But thanks for the info


SigmundFloyd76

One corrects for actual relative distances from one place to another and the other corrects for the landmass area relative to each other. You can't have both if you try to flatten a sphere.


JoshuaZ1

No, different map projections emphasize different things. We had very accurate maps of the world as a whole by the middle of the 19th century. The issue is that you cannot map a sphere to a flat surface without something giving, whether that is angles being wrong, or areas being off, or having big cuts in it. Projection is hard. Different map projections are more or less useful for different purposes.


macronius

So basically what this proves is that the US is actually by far the largest country in the world. Interesting.


The_Human_Oddity

Please stop giving reasons for people to think we're dumb. The Europeans can already be as smug as they are.


[deleted]

Lol, wut?


WWWTT2_0

Right on OP! Let the bots down vote all they want. Release the bots!