I couldn’t find a thread to put this. If there already an interesting things thread let me know. But this is basically a place to drop links to interesting things you’ve found.
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i don’t get it. when it is wrong, it is obvious
Did you read the article? Mercator maps distort people’s perception of the size of many northern hemisphere countries, particularly Russia, Canada, and the US.
Do you honestly think most Americans, who generally know Jack shit about geography, understand that a Mercator map show Russia and Canada at 5x their actual size?
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oh no. i don’t click on articles here
i guess i should be more amazed how stupid people are
People would have better geography skills if they had maps.
Thanks. I appreciate that given I was one of those people. I had no idea how much a “normal” map distorts the actual size. I was aware it occurred but am quite surprised by the magnitude.
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But it would be important to have the right set of maps.
As Kenny’s post demonstrates, some maps might give a good indication of “relative” location; but do a poor job of indicating appropriate relative size(s) of land area between some countries.
Having a globe would also be extremely useful to use alongside a flat map.
Would a globe be classified as a map? 
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i think in this case, the map is the problem.
Yeah, it’s a 3-d map instead of 2-d.
I was surprised how big Greenland is, once it gets shrunken down to ‘actual’ size. I knew it was wildly exaggerated on Mercator projections, I guess I exaggerated by how much it was exaggerated. I think I was expecting something like a middling US state (Kansas or Nebraska) or mid-size European country (Poland, maybe), but it’s much larger than either.
regardless of big or small, they should maintain the borders. Alaska is not an island
I knew that Iceland was larger (area wise) than Greenland; but many maps wouldn’t visualize this correctly.
Now I am confused. In your opinion, which one is obviously wrong?
they both are
No it’s not.
(ninja’d right above)
Greenland is the largest non-continent island on the Earth.
Sorry, it had more arable land. Mistake on my part.
RN, maybe…
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WhoTF uses a Mercator Projection Map anymore?
I mean, besides Google Maps?