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Africa is bigger than China, the US, Eastern Europe & India combined.

Since Earth is a sphere, flat maps dramatically distort the size of continents.

Source: Bryan Christie & Kai Krause for Scientific American #SharedPlanet #science

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Cartographers for Social Equality ❤

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH1bZ0F3zVU

This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

This is why there are so many map projections. Some are better than others - choose wisely.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

@brar Alternate image description: this is where your country will end up due to climate change 😈
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I am such a dumbass. It took me too long to notice that the countries had been overlayed on Africa. I've literally spent 30 seconds looking for Africa for comparison.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I ran into this equal-area projection and I really like it: https://equal-earth.com/
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

TWW: The size or speed you observe is based on your perspective and that is the only thing you can change. *When I was young…. So it always begins but in case it’s yesteryear as today…. I loved globes because they are 3d maps. Today as multi projection becomes the norm that map on your phone will pop out into a view where relative size, depth and distance will be an actual representation. Technology is part of the modern human condition to be shared for Peace. OWOP
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Well this is dumb. African is a CONTINENT while China is a COUNTRY. By these standards, ‘America’(the continents….rememebr, there is a North AND South America) are larger than Africa.

I agree that flat maps are a bit of a band-aid solution but come on man…..at least use the right classification when doing comparisons. Feel free to pick any one of the 32 countries within the continent eh?

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

An odd comparison of continents to countries. Is Africa bigger than North America or Eurasian would be a better comparison.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

I saw a picture not so long ago in which India was overlayed on Australia. Australia is more than twice as big and there living only ca. 20 miljoen people. 1 billion in India. Found the picture 😅. Origin from @KatCopseyGreens
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

And people keep talking about Africa as if it's a country.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Western cartographers purposefully chose a #map grid projection embigenning Europe.
#map
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Thank you, Mr. Mercator. Plenty of confusion (look at Greenland) about projections and it seems like every decade a better one comes along. As a lifetime in Merchant Marine, Mercator is the most common, Genomic is 2nd, only because it’s easy to draw the shortest route between 2 points on Earth. Computer navigation changed all that and gps made my sextant obsolete.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

It doesn’t *look* like it, but Africa is actually larger than North America, and by quite a bit. The Mercator projection quite heavily distorts the Earth the further north you look.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

True that. Here's Australia's true size compared to Europe and the USA:
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Africa = 30 million km². The moon = 38 million km². It's almost as big as the moon.
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

100%

But Africa ain’t a country, if you do continent to continent, North America is pretty close! Africa still bigger though.

I didn’t add the smaller central American countries or Greenland.

Continents be big!!!

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

You mean Africa can fit a few large countries and a couple small ones just like Asia and North America?

- Asia: 44.58 million km²
- Africa: 30.37 million km²
- North America: 24.71 million km²
- South America: 17.84 million km²
- Antarctica: 14.00 million km²
- Europe: 10.18 million km²
- Australia/Oceania: 8.56 million km²

in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

-3C P1=cccp-russian television- SCTV 🇨🇦anyone-Dave Thomas sketch"What Fits Into Mother Russia;knot imperalist american dogs hahahaha!
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

Another perspective from the flat map is this simple graphic:

#Africa #Geography #Maps

This entry was edited (1 month ago)
in reply to Sheril Kirshenbaum

*EVERY* map projection is a compromise.

The usual Mercator is angle-true, thus great for navigating with clock and sextant. It was never intended to be area-true.

Other map projections are true to distances, xor true to form, xor true to area - or a compromise with other constraints.

e.g. radio operators use radial projections centered on their place - great for rotating a directional antenna, useless for pretty much anything else.

Choose your map for your purpose.

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