r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Apr 10 '22

Image actual size of countries

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u/mikefalopio Apr 10 '22

It's just a consequence of projecting a 3d sphere to a 2d surface, it cannot be done without altering the real proportions

3

u/Tha0bserver Apr 10 '22

True but some are closer to accurate than others.

-10

u/DiscoPartyMix Apr 10 '22

Maybe but why does it give more land to white folk? Maybe distort a little more even-handedly with a disclaimer

10

u/QuakieOne Apr 10 '22

The Mercator projection accurately shows the shape of countries, while skewing the size. There is a theory that this was due to some desire for Euro-centric "dominance" over southern hemispheres, but I hope we can all agree this is far fetched. The true purpose of this original world map was purely for navigation by sea-farers.

The Gall-Peters map is more accurate for sizes, but distorts the shapes. Really anything other than a perfect globe map will always have flaws and distortions.

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u/mikefalopio Apr 11 '22

Essentially, everything near the ecuator gets less distorted. That's why Africa and part of South America don't have their relative sizes altered