World Map: Very misleading

[Stunt]

So I was reading about Brazil (it's an emerging economy and what not) and noticed the area of the country was a very large 8.5million sqkm; the number jumped out because I knew Canada was one of the largest countries in the world and it's 10million sqkm. Everytime I've looked at a world map, south america is significantly misrepresented.

Now I realize they are projecting a sphere onto a flat surface and that changes things, but this is a big difference. I think I remember seeing a map out there with oceans cut out of it because of the earth's shape but can't seem to find anything.

Take a look at google maps or this map

Alaska and Brazil look similar in size...when in reality Alaska is 1.7million sqkm; therefore Brazil is actually 5 times the size of Alaska.
Australia similarly should be 4.5 times bigger than Alaska.
Argentina looks the same size as Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland) at 1.1million sqkm and it's 2.7million sqkm.
Greenland looks huge, bigger than South America when actually it's 2.1million sqkm versus South America's 17.8million sqkm. 8.5 times bigger.
France looks to be about the same size as Angola but Angola is actually over twice the size.
Russia looks about twice the size of Africa when actually Africa is twice the size of Russia.

The world map is all screwed up...
It feels strange that something I've looked at my whole life as a reference is so misleading in proportion.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

There are maps that use projections that attempt to reduce the amount of distortion at the poles

 

[ForumMaster]

you only realized this now? no offense, but i remember from 6th grade, they explained this in the atlases. you can't create a rectangular map of a sphere such as earth.

there are many different types of maps that more accurately show the size of countries.

 

[natto fire]

Yeah, I was taught about this back in elementary. Here is a more accurate projection. Note the difference in lines of latitude between the two maps.

edit: Fixed link

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: ForumMaster
you only realized this now? no offense, but i remember from 6th grade, they explained this in the atlases. you can't create a rectangular map of a sphere such as earth.

there are many different types of maps that more accurately show the size of countries.

do you have examples?

 

[Stunt]

Originally posted by: Captain Howdy
Yeah, I was taught about this back in elementary. Here is a more accurate projection. Note the difference in lines of latitude between the two maps.

Dead link

 

[aphex]

http://www.hypermaths.org/quadibloc/maps/mapint.htm

And i think 6th grade was too late, i recall learning about the different map types in 3rd grade or so...

 

[aphex]

this helps as well, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection

 

[mercanucaribe]

It's because of the projection. Mercator is used for navigation because it preserves polar direction. Unfortunately, it somehow came to be used in many atlases, textbooks, and wall maps. There are projections that preserve area, distance, shape, and direction, or a combination of those. None can preserve all.

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

Here is a Robinson projection.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c...tion.jpg/512px-Robinson-projection.jpg
The Robinson projection distorts shape, area, scale, and distance in an attempt to balance the errors of projection properties

 

[brandonb]

Yes. Its quite misleading.

For example, the distance between Phoenix Arizona and Denver Colorado is the same as it is from Denver Colorado to St Paul Minnesota, but Colorado to Minnesota looks to be about 2x the distance from each other. It's really fugged up

 

[Mucho]

Looks like the purpose of the map posted by the OP is more to reflect time zones rather than land mass, Antarctic is not even there.

 

[mugs]

Buy a globe.

Every map projection has some deficiency.

(There was a funny scene about this in an episode of the West Wing - the big block of cheese episode).

 

[IronWing]

This one shows sizes better but at a cost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map

http://mappinghacks.com/maps/dymaxion.png

Basically with projecting spheres onto flat maps you can keep accurate sizes or accurate directions between points (angles, vectors, however you want to describe it), but not both.

 

[FoBoT]

use a globe

 

[mobobuff]

You never learned about the different types of maps in school?

Mercator
Mollweide
Planar
Robinson projection (Orthophanic)
And a few others I don't remember.

Map Projection

 

[loup garou]

Hey, I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but you can read about projection here!!!

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

PS, Rock Salt

 

[AbAbber2k]

Paying attention in grade school ftw.

 

[0roo0roo]

buy a %#@ globe

and if you want to quick compare size go to cia factbook. they have a little size equivalent in relation to the united states for every country. for instance the uk is slightly smaller than Oregon yes brazil is rather large in land area

Brazil :GDP (purchasing power parity):
$1.616 trillion (2006 est.)

United States: GDP (purchasing power parity):
$12.98 trillion (2006 est.)


Brazil GDP - per capita (PPP):
$8,600 (2006 est.)

United States GDP - per capita (PPP):
$43,500 (2006 est.)

United States Land use:
Definition Field Listing
arable land: 18.01%
permanent crops: 0.21%
other: 81.78% (2005)
Irrigated land:
Definition Field Listing
223,850 sq km (2003)

Brazil Land use:
Definition Field Listing
arable land: 6.93%
permanent crops: 0.89%
other: 92.18% (2005)
Irrigated land:
Definition Field Listing
29,200 sq km (2003)


you want a big country? russia is almost 2x our size. yet their economy is basically the size of brazils