Did you know that worldwide maps are modified and are not delineated in the right proportions. This is because some politically powerful areas are depicted as larger and consequently more glorious.
Greenland is actually a very large country, almost as big as the entire continent of South America.
But when its position is shifted to the same latitude of the USA, it’s clear that Greenland is nowhere near as big as we thought. And when moved still further to the equator, we can see that it’s nothing special compared to other islands.
The next country which is shown more modest in the world map than in its actual size is Australia. Here’s what would happen if Australia was at the same latitude as Russia and Europe.
Australia doesn’t seem particularly large. Firstly, this is because it’s close to the equator. Secondly, it’s separated from the other continents and thus difficult to compare with anything else. But take a look at this map …
Look at how the shape of Australia has changed when it’s moved to the north. This is because it’s now within the Arctic Circle, much closer to the pole, and as a result it becomes stretched.
And here’s the USA (minus Alaska) in comparison to Australia. As you can see, they’re practically the same size. Interesting, right?
It seems that Mexico is quite a large country.
And here’s the real size of that most mysterious of continents — Antarctica.
This is what China would look like if placed in a northern position, such as that of Canada.
India is also expanding if we move it towards the north.
If the Democratic Republic of Congo was in Europe, there would be practically no other countries left.
All of the countries on the African continent look quite small. This is because they’re located at or close to the equator. But look at how the Republic of Congo covers almost half of the USA and a large part of Europe.
Here are examples of the largest countries in Africa at the latitude of Russia.
Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Libya, and Chad are all relatively large countries, but normally it’s hard to appreciate this because of their geographical positions. But once they’re moved collectively across the globe, they’re actually nearly as large as Russia.
Let’s place the six largest countries along the equator. Now everything’s equal…
On the other hand, what would Russia look like if we transferred it to another position?
Russia is not only the largest country in the world but also the most northerly. This is why it looks absolutely huge on the map, even larger than many continents.
But when Russia is moved to the equator, it becomes clear that it’s actually two to three times smaller.
The Wagner VI projection is a pseudocylindrical whole Earth map projection. It is a compromise projection, not having any special attributes other than a pleasing, low distortion appearance.
The Goode homolosine projection is normally presented with multiple interruptions. Its equal-area property makes it useful for presenting spatial distribution of phenomena.
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So, what do you think?