30 Real World Maps That Show The True Size Of Countries

There's a lot of empty space in the middle. Most of us live along the coast or within a few hundred kilometers of it.

Yet there are more people in Texas than in all of Australia.

so what? you want a cookie now you noticed something everyone else learned when they were 7?

No s**t.

Well, Alaska and Hawaii are part of the United States, so counting everything instead of being biased, the U.S is quite a bit bigger than Australia.

Impressive!

Well, Alaska and Hawaii are part of the United States, so that makes it much bigger than Australia

The UK is about a 40th of the size of the US, but the US only has 5X the number of people. The UK is dense!

Makes you realize how big Africa REALLY is!

But still we measure squares of the countries in km, and Russia is still the biggest country, wether you will put it down to equator or to the pole, km will still be the same. It's only maps and papers.

empty country (140 mln ppl and snow, snow, ice)

the Mercator projection distorts the size of objects as the latitude increases from the Equator to the poles, where the scale becomes infinite. So, for example, landmasses such as Greenland and Antarctica appear much larger than they actually are relative to land masses near the equator, such as Central Africa.

That's called a geographic projection, you can't accurately project a shape from a sphere to a square especially if it's from the poles of the sphere or the area around it. The map is correct and size is correct on both places. If you've seen a map of the world you'll notice the lines that represent geographic longitude and longitude make square shapes near the equator but those shapes get distorted as you look north or west. That's elementary school knowledge people.

Africa is much larger than many expect... i.e., from Dakar to Mogadishu is 9500km

For better navigation the globe was projected on a grid of perpendicular parallels and meridians. But since the real area between two meridians is decreasing near the poles, the projection is distorted, because on the map the distances are equal.

Think nonfat like this: you have a sphere covered by a thin layer of dough. You cut it out and peel it off, and you have this odd irregular shape. So you place on the table and stretch and roll it to make it a flat rectangle. Now everything near the poles has been greatly stretched to achieve it.

In introduction: 'The reason why certain countries looks bigger or smaller than others is because of something called the Mercator Projection. Putting a 3D planet on a two-dimensional map was something of a challenge for early cartographers and so a Flemish geographer and cartographer named Gerardus Mercator came up with a solution. In 1569 he designed a map that could be accurately used for navigation purposes, but 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 appeared much larger than they actually are."

I like to use an orange with my students. Draw on the orange peel, then carefully peel it. Try to lay it flat and make it a rectangle.

In a few words, maps are accurate. Fact is you cannot flatten a 3D sphere on a 2D paper sheet and expect no distortion.

It's a matter of projecting a 3D spheroid onto a 2D paper map. The most commonly standard is the Mercator projection in which the map distances are increasingly distorted at high latitudes. That's why Russia, Canada, Greenland and other land masses in polar regions are disproportionately larger than those around the equator.

becouse the spheric shape of earth:) all maps are distorted

The reason why certain countries looks bigger or smaller than others is because of something called the Mercator Projection. Putting a 3D planet on a two-dimensional map was something of a challenge for early cartographers and so a Flemish geographer and cartographer named Gerardus Mercator came up with a solution. In 1569 he designed a map that could be accurately used for navigation purposes, but 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 appeared much larger than they actually are. To show how incorrect our understanding of country sizes is, a website called thetruesize.com lets you move landmasses into different locations. Bored Panda has played a bit on this site, and this is what we found.

Earth is a sphere and maps are flat 2D objects. So when we try to create a 2D map of 3D earth these distortions happen. Check out Vsauce's youtube video about this for better understanding.

It's quite simple, if you take a ball, and cut it to get a flat "map" you'll see that you don't get the classic "maplook". To be able to make it a rectangel you either have to leave some blank space on the "map", or enlarge some areas. I guess they decided to use the availible space to show more detals in the north, and south, rather then leaving some blank spaces on the map.

It is because the map we know which is so innacute is a merchant's map from ages ago. Actually called the Mercator (latin for merchant) Map. It helped them navigate better but maybe worth researching. https://youtu.be/vVX-PrBRtTY

Its because the mercador projection (wich is what they used) makes it so that the shape of things stays the same but because of that you have to make areas nearer to the poles look larger. if you made all the areas the same size, then you'd have to make the shape wrong.

white supremacy, imperialism, colonialism, nationalism, and capitalism.

It's agents the law to show us the real map only the army know the real maps wear all alot closer then made out plus wear only inside N.S.E.W the Chinese made it to make us go around what about the area outside north south east west

Basically, you can't make a sphere flat. That's why it's distorted at the poles

It had to be skewed to get it on a flat surface. You cant project a round shape on a flat surface without distortion

it allows a straight line to be a constant compass bearing, beneficial for navigation.

It's just simply not possible to accurately draw earth's surface on a flat paper. (3d sphere --/--> 2d flat surface)/ Look it up there has been dozens of idea people tried to depict the landmass more accurately but they just can't.

It's basically a problem with converting a spherical planet onto a flat, 2D map. As there's less space at the north and south extremes of a planet, when you spread it out over a rectangular map, it stretches it out dramatically.

It tells you at the top...

https://youtu.be/vVX-PrBRtTY

In these maps, you're basically taking a single point at the poles and expanding them to be the size of the rest of the map. So, locations closer to the poles seem larger than they are in order to have a rectangular map.

Because the World is flat ;)

due to projection of 3-d in 2-d

Remember.... The earth is rounded so what ever is avobe the ecuador. Will look biggwr because if its curvature.

The scale, thus the proportion is 3 times less on the Ecuador line than northern or southern in Artic or Antarctic latitudes. Because the length of the latitude is 3 times more (the Ecuador / the poles ).

It's because they are doing it on the Mercator projection, which is what most maps online are made with. The Mercator projection greatly distorts space the farther away from the equator things get. Things bear the equator are more proportion in size. This entire article is honestly horrendously misrepresenting geographies because they didn't explain the concept of the projections. Look at a Robinson projection, and *most* of the map with be shown somewhat equal representation, but the outer areas will be more squished/distorted And then, many other projections show many other representations of the earth. Basically, any flat map with be distorted because each different projections is calculated a different way to show different areas of the world with more/less/distortions. They all serve different purposes

These are due to the inherent way Mercator's projection works: If you try to express a flat plane into a globe then the choice of what you out in the center (nearest the observer) will look smaller. Try this website: http://www.vox.com/2015/9/8/9276895/true-size-map

Because the Earth is curved, and you can't just flatten things onto a map without spreading it out

Depends on the type of map. Old style Mercator Projections were always inaccurate. That is what this site uses. the best is seen here. http://www.geek.com/science/geek-answers-which-map-projection-is-best-1591108/

Curo, po imenu mi se cini da si sa Balkana negde, kolko sam ja upoznat sa skolstvom ovo je geografija iz petog razreda osnovne - inace predajem geografiju tako da...

How else would you fit a sphere on a 2 dimensional rectangle?

Not inaccurately, it's a globe, it's stretched into a rectangle but you know it ain't as wide on top as it is on the equator. Actually the whole too edge of the map is one point stretched into a line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection

Maps are not inaccurate. Explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection

Because you cant draw the round earth on a flat surface without distortion. Some types of maps draw for cake some draw for position/placement. It depends on the type of map you're looking at. Look at a globe

Because the current map is just a projection.

Ema, check this out: https://youtu.be/vVX-PrBRtTY

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White people... Europeans pushing a Eurocentric world

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The earth is flat that's why. And dont start laughing just go look for yourself oke

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As you move towards the north or south you expect a phenomenon called Inexplicable Polar Minification, where land masses shrink in size as they becomes colder. For instance, the land mass of the United States shrinks to the size of just two miles wide and tall at the exact North Pole. Incredibly it would also be thinner than a piece of paper. Fascinating.

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I hope this question was asked by primary school kiddo. Otherwise *sigh* o tempora, o mores...

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Because it's fake( Check square kilometres of these countries on any site and you will see that Australia can't be the same size as USA or Romania to be that big. Whether the maps are slightly deformed, it is absolutely not to this extend.

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Go back to primary school