The world map that we have become accustomed to since childhood and which we use almost daily in Google Maps is not entirely correct. Russia is gigantic in size; Greenland is larger than South America; The equator is not located in the middle, and the continents are elongated at the poles. This is the Mercator conformal projection.
The projection was invented in the Middle Ages by Gerard Mercator (1512-1594), a Belgian geographer and cartographer, to represent the round Earth on a two-dimensional plane for the needs of navigation. It preserves the angles between the directions (whatever that means), but the sizes of the continents are distorted.
500 years later, two smart guys made the map interactive, opening people's eyes to the real amazing world. The result is a cooler toy than Pockemon Go, where you can rearrange countries and compare them. The author of the article left to play at 12, returned only at five in the evening...
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While Hillary Clinton accuses Russian hackers of hacking the mail of the US Democratic Party, let's compare Russia and America. More Russia.
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But only one and a half times...
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The territory of Russia could fit two Europe and two Australia, South America, Africa and Asia almost entirely... Why does Russia look smaller when it “moves”? This is the Mercator projection. When moving countries, you can compare them, but we must not forget that this is just a game of imagination. In other words, this would be the size of Russia if it were in the place of Africa, Australia, and so on...
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Australia looks tiny on the map - somewhere on the outskirts of the world. But it's the size of America.
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Larger than Europe and only slightly inferior to China.
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The USA, Australia and India are located in Africa. By the way, on the interactive map you can not only move countries, but also rotate them 360 degrees. Very comfortably.
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What is Greenland? I used to think that this was a huge icy continent, which for some reason was called an island.
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About the size of the European part of Russia...
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But this is the real Greenland! The area is the same as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the Mercator projection, the land area expands at the North and South Poles and, conversely, narrows slightly at the equator.
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By the way, about the poles. Antarctica doesn't even fit on the map. The poles cannot be depicted on it - it is flat.
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But what happens if you place it in the Atlantic Ocean? We have found Atlantis!
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Let's move it to Russia and Antarctica again goes beyond the edges, stretching to infinity. This is what the Ice Continent would look like if it were the Russian Federation.
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The largest countries in Africa...
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Let's imagine Africa is trying to take over the world. Looks like M&M's scattered on the table.
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America is taking over the world...
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Russia... I just moved them to the North Pole area.
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Place the US in the Mediterranean and you get the Roman Empire. This is how she once was. Another interesting nuance: American cities are exactly the same in climate as European ones. After all, the weather in Chicago is similar to that in Bulgaria, Florida is similar to Egypt, and California can easily be confused with Spain...
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On the contrary: six large European countries (Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Romania) in the United States. Conclusion: Europe can move entirely to America. And there will still be room.
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Another former empire is the British. The small island country has managed to leave its legacy all over the world.
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I read somewhere that 78 Italys can fit on Russian territory. I checked: 23 fit. But this is because Italy has become larger.
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Japan is shaped like Baikal.
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There are only four places in the world where you can admire geysers: Iceland, Kamchatka, New Zealand and Yellowstone National Park in the USA. This is what happens if you put Iceland in each of them... It's tiny.
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"Moscow region" in Spain.
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The tiny island could be lost somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea. And no one would notice.
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Or in the Gulf of Mexico...
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Madagascar fits perfectly into the Sea of Okhotsk.
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And Jamaica is in White... But they wouldn't like it.
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Have you heard about the country of New Caledonia?
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No surprise...
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Finally, the ten largest countries on the equator - this is the best way to compare their sizes. Russia, Canada, China, USA, Brazil, Australia, India, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Algeria. What is Algeria doing in the top ten? So I was surprised...
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Once upon a time, the world's cartographers were faced with the task of drawing our three-dimensional planet on a two-dimensional map. Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerard Mercator found a solution that now bears his name - the Mercator projection. The scale on the map in this projection is not constant; it increases from the equator to the poles. Because of this, distortions are introduced into the sizes of objects. The greatest distortions are for objects near the poles, the least distortions are near the equator. That is, to compare the areas of two states, you need to place them in the same place on the map so that the distortion is the same.
So, for example, Russia, moved to the equator, no longer seems like a giant northern country.
See:
The USA, placed on a par with Australia, seems incredibly small:
If Romania were an island in the Arctic Ocean:
Australia is bigger than it seems - it can cover the whole of Europe:
If Brazil is moved to Asia:
Indonesia stretches almost the entire width of Russia
Greenland is not that big compared to the USA or Brazil:
China moved to Russian territory:
Canada in South America:
California is almost the same size as Great Britain:
Australia, placed in North America, seems really huge.
Antarctica is not much larger than Brazil
Many people know that the geographic map of the world we are accustomed to does not accurately reflect the real ratio of the areas of countries, and even more so of seas and oceans. The use of the Mercator projection leads to many distortions when, for example, Greenland looks larger than Australia... A fundamentally new projection proposed by Japanese designers made it possible to construct the most accurate map of the world that humanity has ever seen.
How did they do it?
A traditional map of the world is constructed in an ancient way, in which the image from the surface of the globe is transferred to a flat map using the Mercator projection. As a result, we get Greenland on the map several times larger than Australia, while in reality Greenland is three times smaller...
But a map built according to the principles of the AuthaGraph projection can be called truly innovative! Here the proportions of land and water remain unchanged and correspond to what we see on the globe. For this development, AuthaGraph received a prestigious award - the Japanese Good Design Award.
Then comes the original process of transferring the image onto a plane by combining in various ways projection through intermediate objects. This "multi-layer display" reduces the number of errors and monstrous distortions that arise when traditionally unfolding the surface of a globe into a flat map.
Of course, it is impossible to achieve complete perfection, but the map from AuthaGraph comes as close as possible to it.
How do the authors of the new world map explain the need for its appearance?
“Antarctica was discovered in 1820, and the first man reached the North Pole in 1909. In the 20th century, relations between East and West and North-South problems came to the forefront of world politics. The main territorial interest was the land, which was the human habitat. But since the end of the twentieth century, dwindling resources and environmental problems have forced attention to the polar regions and the territory of the oceans...
The AuthaGraphic World Map aims to support this new perspective and show what our globe actually looks like and how the interests of different countries and groups are distributed across it."
According to its creators, the new world map will allow you to look at the planet and its individual corners from a new angle and free yourself from ingrained stereotypes like “Western World”, “Far East”, “go north”.
For comparison: a world map drawn in 1844
World map of the 1490s, with the help of which Columbus convinced Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile to support his expedition.
Area distortions in the Mercator projection
In fact, Africa is larger in area than the USA, China, India and almost all of Europe, taken together. But from the generally accepted projections of geographical maps there is an illusion that this is not so. The so-called Mercator projection, which is used for many maps, distorts areas closest to the poles the most. Small Greenland (an area smaller than the Congo) seems like a gigantic territory. Antarctica too. The area of Russia is significantly exaggerated relative to the southern countries. Or take Ukraine, whose area is actually equal to the size of Madagascar.
All the maps of the world have been lying to us for many centuries. Moreover, in different countries - Russia, Europe, USA, China, Australia, Chile, South Africa - world maps are very different.
Distortion on cartographic maps is a completely natural phenomenon, because cartographers need to scan the Earth's ellipsoid onto a plane. This is basically impossible to do without distortion. The only question is what exactly can be distorted and what cannot.
There are four types of distortion:
- length distortions;
- distortion of corners;
- area distortion;
- distortion of forms.
True size of Africa compared to different countries. Map author: Kai Krause
Why don't most people realize the true scale of giant Africa or the more modest size of Russia, Canada or Greenland? Because for some reason the Mercator projection is used not only in marine navigation, but also in many other geographical maps. These maps are used to teach in schools, and they are shown on TV. Hence the characteristic cognitive distortion in many ordinary people.
The main thing is that we do not necessarily need to use the Mercator projection in everyday life. We are not naval navigators and do not plan air raids on neighboring countries, where we need to fly in a straight line. We are simple peaceful people. Why do we need perfect exact direction in a straight line between geographical points? If you fantasize, in ordinary life this can only be convenient when planning long trips by car of several thousand kilometers. In other cases, few people travel by their own transport. Basically, people use planes and trains, so even travelers don't need to plan their own route.
Why then is the Mercator projection used in school maps, on television, etc.? This is not entirely clear. Perhaps for the modern average person it is still more important to understand the comparative sizes of the countries of the world, and not to determine direct directions along the routes.
As we have already noticed, in the Mercator projection, real areas are shown only near the equator, and all other areas on the globe are greatly distorted. These distortions are the price we pay for knowing the exact directions when navigating.
How can we create a more accurate and fair map of the world with the least amount of area distortion? In 2009, designers from AuthaGraph tried to solve this problem. Their job is to apply geometric modeling ideas to practical problems. One of these tasks is designing a more visual map of the world. Then they compiled the AuthaGraph World Map, which most fairly displays the areas of geographical countries and territories.
Here we use a type of so-called isometric projection, in which in the display of a three-dimensional object on a plane, the distortion coefficient (the ratio of the length of the segment projected onto the plane, parallel to the coordinate axis, to the actual length of the segment) is the same along all three axes.
The projection is compiled in several stages. First, the elliptical surface of the globe is divided into 96 equal triangles. They are projected onto 96 regions of the modified tetrahedron. The tetrahedron is then "flattened" to the correct shape and trimmed so that it can be unfolded into a rectangular shape, that is, into a standard rectangular flat card of a familiar shape.
Steps to compile an AuthaGraph World Map projection
Of course, it was possible to immediately project the sphere onto the tetrahedron using the usual optical method, but in this case strong distortions arise that are striking. The idea behind the preliminary division into 96 regions was to minimize such distortions and maintain the proportions of the territories relative to each other.
But there is no limit to perfection. Based on the original AuthaGraph map, Japanese designer Hajime Narukawa created a new version that looks great and at the same time preserves the proportions of countries and continents relative to each other, as well as the ratio of the earth's mass and the oceans.
Map of Hajime Narukawa based on AuthaGraph World Map
This fairer and more proportionate map can be used in school textbooks and in the media, as it more accurately shows the projection of the globe on a plane and gives a better idea of what our Earth looks like. Its advantage is also that all continents are shown on it without breaking the map, including Antarctica (and of course Japan is in the center, as on many Japanese maps: this is quite normal; on Russian maps, too, the vertical axis of the world passes through Moscow). And several more such maps are stitched into a single space, so that you can clearly imagine the relative positions of the continents. Here it is clear, for example, which point in European Russia is closest to Alaska.
All existing geographical maps are distortions. Only the globe shows the most accurate picture of the world. But if we are forced to use flat surfaces, then at least we will try to minimize the amount of distortion.
Many people are aware that the world map we are used to does not accurately reflect the real ratio of the areas of countries, much less seas and oceans. The use of the Mercator projection leads to many distortions when, for example, Greenland looks larger than Australia... A fundamentally new projection proposed by Japanese designers made it possible to construct the most accurate map of the world that humanity has ever seen.
How did they do it?
A traditional map of the world is constructed in an ancient way, in which the image from the surface of the globe is transferred to a flat map using the Mercator projection. As a result, we get Greenland on the map several times larger than Australia, while in reality Greenland is three times smaller...
But a map built according to the principles of the AuthaGraph projection can be called truly innovative! Here the proportions of land and water remain unchanged and correspond to what we see on the globe. For this development, AuthaGraph received a prestigious award - the Japanese Good Design Award.
Then comes the original process of transferring the image onto a plane by combining various methods of projection through intermediate objects. This “multi-layer mapping” reduces the number of errors and monstrous distortions that arise when traditionally unfolding the surface of a globe into a flat map.
Of course, it is impossible to achieve complete perfection, but the map from AuthaGraph comes as close as possible to it.
“Antarctica was discovered in 1820, and the first man reached the North Pole in 1909. In the 20th century, relations between East and West and North-South problems came to the forefront of world politics. The main territorial interest was the land, which was the human habitat. But since the end of the twentieth century, dwindling resources and environmental problems have forced attention to the polar regions and the territory of the oceans...
