Greenland is the Achilles heel of the Mercator map. Despite appearances, our icy neighbor to the north is 1.5 times smaller than India, more than four times smaller than the United States, and 14.5 times smaller than Africa. In fact, Greenland is about the size of Saudi Arabia, though you’d never guess it by looking at the world’s most ubiquitous map.
The Mercator projection is an inherently flawed design. It exaggerates the size of countries closest to the poles while depicting size most faithfully at the equator. Though it was once a handy navigational tool for sailors, the map has instilled in the rest of us a gross misunderstanding of geography and relative country size.
For the perspective-challenged among us, there’s hope yet. A new web app called The True Size OfMA!US*MjY2NTE0NA.MjQ5NTMzOTE)Mg!GLMTI4MTgyNjg.MjI5MTU2ODU)NA!CN*Mzg5NDUyMg.MTUzODAyOTY)NQ!SANzY1NDgyNw.MTY1NTIyNjQ(MzU4)Ng!GL*OTI2MTg4Mw.MTgyMDY1ODI(MzAz)Nw!MX*Mzk0MTk4MQ.MjIwMTM0MjA)OA) is an interactive map that its creators, James Talmage and Damon Maneice, hope will give people a better understanding of a country’s true size. Dragging one country across the map causes it to change size and shape in real time, allowing you to place it beside countries at other latitudes and compare their relative sizes. For example, as you overlay the United States on top of Greenland, the former stretches and bloats. Meanwhile, dragging Greenland down toward Saudi Arabia, causes the northerly country to shrink dramatically in size. For even more accuracy, you can use a compass in the bottom lefthand corner of the screen to rotate each country for alignment.
It's a simple tool, but it's wildly effective at granting a new perspective on the size and shape of the world's various land masses. As we all know from years of staring at maps that tell us otherwise, that kind of perspective is pretty hard to come by. You can play with the map here.
