Africa is far bigger than you may mean . If you look at a function or world , the continent calculate pretty turgid compare to other Din Land passel , but this theatrical performance is not precise . In reality , Africa is tremendous . In fact , you could fit China , India , all the United States Department of State in the immediate US , and most of Europe into the quad it really takes up . So why is Africa so small ( relatively ) when display on a map ?
“ The map is not the territory , ” Alfred Korzybski oncestatedwhen explain how the great unwashed tend to throw poser of realness for realism itself , and this expression is particularly pertinent for modern maps . As with any attempt to stand for complexity in simplified models , there are barter - offs .
The problem is simple . How do you turn a domain into a flat acoustic projection without distorting the outcome ? Today , we have various ways of accomplish this , but for a long fourth dimension , the features of our worldmapswere influenced by what is prognosticate theMercator projection . This was a creature used for maritime navigation that has had a permanent influence on most of our map .
Gerardus Mercator was a 16th - 100 map maker who created the flatten projections , over with latitude and longitude , that we are conversant with today . Mercator ’s approach used acylindricalprojection that was valuable for sea travel , as the credit line he included that make up the map ’s grid were a changeless course ( loxodrome ) .
However , because the features of the projection were signify for navigation , rather than for accurate geography , thelandmassesnearer the poles are distorted and stretched . So , while Africa appears littler than it actually is , other places have been inflated . Greenland is actually importantly smaller than it appear to be on the function and so too are Europe and North America .
Russia would seem to take up around 25 percent of the planet ’s control surface , but in reality , it only covers about 5 percent . require to see the worldly concern shrink to its true scale ? Climate data scientist Neil Kaye create a ready to hand gifthat reduces the inflatedcontinentsto their actual proportions .
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Despite these pregnant distortions , Mercator ’s projection is still commonly used today . This means that many mass are not aware of how our major planet actually look . Moreover , the distortion also impact specific country and can make them come out bigger than they really are .
Such distorted shape can have an encroachment on how we realise ourselves and our office on the major planet , so in an increasingly connected world , we should have a more accurate understanding of how everything fits together .
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