Real ratios of country sizes. Brain illusions
Many people know that the geographic map of the world we are accustomed to does not correctly reflect the real ratio of the areas of countries, and even more so of seas and oceans. The use of the Mercator projection leads to many distortions when, for example, Greenland looks larger than Australia... A fundamentally new projection proposed by Japanese designers made it possible to build the most accurate map world that humanity has ever seen.
How did they do it?
A traditional map of the world is constructed in an ancient way, in which the image from the surface of the globe is transferred to a flat map using the Mercator projection. As a result, we get Greenland on the map several times larger than Australia, while in reality Greenland is three times smaller...
But a map built according to the principles of the AuthaGraph projection can be called truly innovative! Here the proportions of land and water remain unchanged and correspond to what we see on the globe. For this development, AuthaGraph received a prestigious award - the Japanese Good Design Award.
Then comes the original process of transferring the image onto a plane by combining various methods of projection through intermediate objects. This "multi-layer display" reduces the number of errors and monstrous distortions that arise when traditionally unfolding the surface of a globe into a flat map.
Of course, it is impossible to achieve complete perfection, but the map from AuthaGraph comes as close as possible to it.
How do the authors of the new world map explain the need for its appearance?
“Antarctica was discovered in 1820, and the first man reached the North Pole in 1909. In the 20th century, relations between East and West and North-South problems came to the forefront of world politics. The main territorial interest was the land, which was the human habitat. But since the end of the twentieth century, dwindling resources and environmental problems have forced attention to the polar regions and the territory of the oceans...
The AuthaGraphic World Map aims to support this new perspective and show what our globe actually looks like and how the interests of different countries and groups are distributed across it."
According to its creators, new map world will allow you to look at the planet and its individual corners from a new angle and free yourself from ingrained stereotypes like “Western World”, “Far East”, “go north”.
For comparison: a world map drawn in 1844
World map of the 1490s, with the help of which Columbus convinced Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile to support his expedition.
Once upon a time, the world's cartographers were faced with the task of drawing our three-dimensional planet on a two-dimensional map. Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerard Mercator found a solution that now bears his name - the Mercator projection. The scale on the map in this projection is not constant; it increases from the equator to the poles. Because of this, distortions are introduced into the sizes of objects. Greatest distortion for objects at the poles, the smallest at the equator. That is, to compare the areas of two states, you need to place them in the same place on the map so that the distortion is the same.
For example, Russia, moved to the equator, no longer seems like a giant northern country.
See:
The USA, placed on a par with Australia, seems incredibly small:
If Romania were an island in the Arctic Ocean:
Australia is bigger than it seems - it can cover the whole of Europe:
If Brazil is moved to Asia:
Indonesia stretches almost the entire width of Russia
Greenland is not that big compared to the USA or Brazil:
China moved to Russian territory:
Canada in South America:
California is almost the size of the UK:
Australia, placed in North America, seems really huge.
Antarctica is not much larger than Brazil
Scientists to this day have not come to a consensus on how to most correctly display the relief of a spherical planet on a flat sheet of paper. It's like drawing a map on a tangerine, peeling off the peel and trying to flatten it into a rectangle. It is clear that the areas close to the “poles” will have to be greatly stretched.
The true size of Greenland
First, look at Greenland. Big island, isn't it? Almost like South America.
But when you move Greenland to the latitude of the United States, you can see that it is not that big at all. And when transferred to the equator, it is completely clear that this is just an island, and not a giant island.
But what would happen if Australia were at the latitude of Russia and Europe
Australia seems to be small in size. Firstly, it is close to the equator, and secondly, it is distant from other continents and has nothing to compare it with. But look at these cards.
Notice how Australia's shape changed as it moved north. This is because part of it is located beyond the Arctic Circle, that is, very close to the pole, and is greatly extended in the projection.
But the USA (without Alaska) compared to Australia. As it turned out, they are almost the same size
Mexico turns out to be a pretty big country.
But the real size of the most mysterious continent - Antarctica
What about the true size of Russia?
Russia is not only the largest country, but also the northernmost. That is why on the map it looks like a giant, even larger than many continents.
But if we move Russia to the equator, we will see that it has decreased by two or three times.
And this is how the size of Alaska gradually changes as it moves towards the equator
This is what China would look like if it were a northern country like Canada
India, compared to Russia and the United States, is not as small as it seems
If the Democratic Republic of the Congo were in Europe, there would be almost no room left for other countries there
All countries on the African continent look somehow small. This is all due to the fact that they are located on the equator. See how the Republic of Congo covered almost half of the US and most of Europe.
The most large countries Africa at the latitude of Russia
Algeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Libya and Chad are quite large countries, but this is not usually visible due to their position. But in fact, if you put these five countries together, they will be almost the size of Russia in area.
Let's place the six largest countries along the equator. Now they are on an equal footing
Area distortions in the Mercator projection
In fact, Africa is larger in area than the USA, China, India and almost all of Europe, taken together. But from the generally accepted projections of geographical maps there is an illusion that this is not so. The so-called Mercator projection, which is used for many maps, distorts areas closest to the poles the most. Small Greenland (an area smaller than the Congo) seems like a gigantic territory. Antarctica too. The area of Russia is significantly exaggerated relative to the southern countries. Or take Ukraine, whose area is actually equal to the size of Madagascar.
All the maps of the world have been lying to us for many centuries. Moreover, in different countries - Russia, Europe, USA, China, Australia, Chile, South Africa - world maps are very different.
Distortion on cartographic maps is a completely natural phenomenon, because cartographers need to scan the Earth's ellipsoid onto a plane. This is basically impossible to do without distortion. The only question is what exactly can be distorted and what cannot.
There are four types of distortion:
- length distortions;
- distortion of corners;
- area distortion;
- distortion of forms.
True size of Africa compared to different countries. Map author: Kai Krause
Why don't most people realize the true scale of giant Africa or the more modest size of Russia, Canada or Greenland? Because for some reason the Mercator projection is used not only in marine navigation, but also in many other geographical maps. These maps are used to teach in schools, and these maps are shown on TV. Hence the characteristic cognitive distortion in many ordinary people.
The main thing is that we do not necessarily need to use the Mercator projection in everyday life. We are not naval navigators and do not plan air raids on neighboring countries, where we need to fly in a straight line. We are simple peaceful people. Why do we need perfect exact direction in a straight line between geographical points? If you fantasize, then in ordinary life this can only be convenient when planning long car trips of several thousand kilometers. In other cases, few people travel by their own transport. Mostly, people use planes and trains, so even travelers do not need to plan their own route.
Why then is the Mercator projection used in school maps, on television, etc.? This is not entirely clear. Perhaps, for the modern average person, it is still more important to understand the comparative sizes of the countries of the world, and not to determine direct directions along the routes.
As we have already noticed, in the Mercator projection, real areas are shown only near the equator, and all other areas on the globe are greatly distorted. These distortions are the price we pay for knowing the exact directions when navigating.
How can we create a more accurate and fair map of the world with the least amount of area distortion? In 2009, designers from AuthaGraph tried to solve this problem. Their job is to apply geometric modeling ideas to practical problems. One of these tasks is designing a more visual map of the world. Then they compiled the AuthaGraph World Map, which most fairly displays the areas of geographical countries and territories.
Here we use a type of so-called isometric projection, in which in the display of a three-dimensional object on a plane, the distortion coefficient (the ratio of the length of the segment projected onto the plane, parallel to the coordinate axis, to the actual length of the segment) is the same along all three axes.
The projection is compiled in several stages. First, the elliptical surface of the globe is divided into 96 equal triangles. They are projected onto 96 regions of the modified tetrahedron. The tetrahedron is then "flattened" to the correct shape and trimmed so that it can be unfolded into a rectangular shape, that is, into a standard rectangular flat card of a familiar shape.
Stages of drawing up an AuthaGraph projection World Map
Of course, it was possible to immediately project the sphere onto the tetrahedron using the usual optical method, but in this case strong distortions arise that are striking. The idea behind the preliminary division into 96 regions was to minimize such distortions and maintain the proportions of the territories relative to each other.
But there is no limit to perfection. Based on original map AuthaGraph Japanese designer Hajime Narukawa has created a new version that looks great and at the same time also preserves the proportions of countries and continents relative to each other, as well as the ratio of the earth's mass and the oceans.
Map of Hajime Narukawa based on AuthaGraph World Map
This fairer and more proportional map can be used in both school textbooks and the media, as it more accurately shows the projection of the globe on a plane and gives a better idea of what our Earth looks like. Its advantage is also that all continents are shown on it without breaking the map, including Antarctica (and of course Japan is in the center, as on many Japanese maps: this is quite normal, on Russian maps The vertical axis of the world also passes through Moscow). And several more such maps are stitched into a single space, so that you can clearly imagine the relative positions of the continents. Here it is clear, for example, which point European Russia closest to Alaska.
All existing geographical maps- these are distortions. Only the globe shows the most accurate picture of the world. But if we are forced to use flat surfaces, then at least we will try to minimize the amount of distortion.