How would you react if I told you that almost all the world maps you see today are wrong? Yes, you read that right. This distortion is the result of the Mercator map created in 1596 to help sailors navigate their voyages. Essentially, the right shapes are followed but the farthest you move from the equator, the bigger Nations become compared to their true size, thanks to Mercator projection. To find a way around this, folks at The True Size gives us a way to know the real size of countries. You can drag and drop countries around to see the true size in relative to others. Before you try, take a look at a few samples below. (h/t)
1. The real size of the 10 largest countries in the world side by side on the equator:
2. Move the Democratic Republic of Congo further north and this is what happens:
3. Alaska is the United States biggest state, but it actually isn’t as big as they make it look on the map.
4. Texas is the US’ second largest state but compared to Alaska, there isn’t much difference
5. Bring Canada lower to where the US is and you’ll see just how similar the size is
6. In case anyone forgot just how big Australia is:
7. Antartica is actually just about the size of western Africa
8. California is way bigger than the UK in land mass
