The real geographic size of countries.

NorCal 50+
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NorCal 50+
Edited Date/Time 12/29/2018 3:42pm
Most flat maps of the world represent certain countries as much larger than they really are. They are based on the Mercator projection, which is more than 500 years old, but is still used today.
Here are the actual sizes of the USA, Alaska and Canada, compared with South America (much smaller than what I always envisioned):

https://thetruesize.com/#/aboutModal?borders=1~!MTQ3MjM2NjY.NTkwMDU0NQ*…



Here is Greenland, which I always thought was huge, but turns out that it's relatively small:



Isn't it amazing how widespread and commonly accepted things can be, even when they are total illusions? Grinning



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Prntscrn
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Prntscrn 12/28/2018 1:10pm
12/28/2018 1:10pm
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NorCal 50+
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NorCal 50+ 12/28/2018 1:11pm
12/28/2018 1:11pm
Aaand here is the size of Greenland as represented on the Mercator Projection:





Ebs
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Ebs 12/28/2018 1:16pm
12/28/2018 1:16pm
Some of these short videos are pretty good. Here's the map thing explained...


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NorCal 50+
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NorCal 50+ 12/28/2018 1:19pm
12/28/2018 1:19pm
Real size of Russia and the U.K.



Grinning







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Foghorn
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Foghorn 12/29/2018 8:35am
12/29/2018 8:35am
Projection or not, North America is substantially larger than South America.
Timo_2824
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Timo_2824 12/29/2018 2:42pm
12/29/2018 2:42pm
Foghorn wrote:
Projection or not, North America is substantially larger than South America.
NA: 9.54 million square miles
SA: 6.89 million square miles
Africa: 11.73 million square miles
Asia: 17.21 million square miles
Europe: 3.93 million square miles
XXVoid MainXX
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XXVoid MainXX 12/29/2018 3:42pm
12/29/2018 3:42pm
Another thing most people don''t understand is how thin our atmosphere actually is, and how close to the surface of the Earth the orbit of the International Space Station actually is, and how small the highest mountain peaks are relative to the size of the earth. For example, if you shrunk the Earth down to the size of a cue ball, the surface would actually be smoother than the surface of a cue ball. On a typical schoolroom globe, the ISS orbit would only be 3/8 of an inch above the surface of the globe at scale.

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