Scientists to this day have not come to a consensus on how to most correctly display the relief of a spherical planet on a flat sheet of paper. It's like drawing a map on a tangerine, peeling off the peel and trying to flatten it into a rectangle. It is clear that the areas close to the "poles" will have to be greatly stretched.
We all use the projection of Gerardus Mercator, but it has a drawback: the closer the islands and countries are to the poles, the more they seem.
Thetruesize.com website was created to better represent the actual size ratios on the map.
The true size of Greenland
First, look at Greenland. Big island, isn't it? Almost like South America.
But when you move Greenland to the latitude of the United States, you can see that it is not that big at all. And when transferring to the equator, it is completely clear that this is just an island, and not a giant island.
But what would have happened if Australia were at the latitude of Russia and Europe
Promotional video:
Australia seems to be small. Firstly, it is close to the equator, and secondly, it is remote from other continents and there is nothing to compare it with. But look at these cards.
Notice how Australia's shape changed as we moved north. This is because part of it is located beyond the Arctic Circle, that is, very close to the pole, and is strongly stretched in projection.
But the USA (excluding Alaska) in comparison with Australia. As it turned out, they are almost the same size:
Mexico turns out to be a pretty big country:
And here is the real size of the most mysterious continent - Antarctica:
How about Russia's true size?
Russia is not only the largest country, but also the northernmost. That is why it looks like a giant on the map, which is even larger than many continents.
But having transferred Russia to the equator, we will see that it has decreased by two or three times.
And this is how the size of Alaska gradually changes as it moves to the equator:
This is what China would look like if it were a northern country, like Canada:
India is not as small as it seems compared to Russia and the United States:
If the Democratic Republic of the Congo were in Europe, there would be almost no room for other countries:
All countries on the African continent seem to be somewhat small. This is all due to the fact that they are located at the equator. See how the Republic of the Congo has covered nearly half of the US and most of Europe.
The largest African countries at the latitude of Russia
Algeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Libya and Chad are quite large countries, but usually this is not visible due to their position. But in fact, if these five countries are "blinded" together, they will be almost like Russia in area.
Let's locate the six largest countries along the equator. Now they are on an equal footing
Russia, of course, is still huge, but not as supergiant as it seems from its latitudes. And here you can clearly see how big Australia is.
Other existing cartographic projections with the help of which scientists are trying to solve the problem of a plausible image of the Earth's relief:
Gall-Peters projection:
Wagner projection:
