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Swede

(37,358 posts)
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 09:02 AM Sep 4

Africa wants its true size on the world map


The African Union argues that the Mercator projection distorts the continent, both in size and global attention.



https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/africa-wants-a-new-map/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Africa wants its true size on the world map (Original Post) Swede Sep 4 OP
Trump will ban that idea as woke newdeal2 Sep 4 #1
Trump won't get a bigger vote JustAnotherGen Sep 4 #2
He doesn't care too much. He just wants to control US newdeal2 Sep 4 #5
Half of MAGA are flat-earthers Prairie Gates Sep 4 #3
The dictatorship is now JustAnotherGen Sep 4 #6
This reminds me of a great West Wing episode LetMyPeopleVote Sep 4 #4
Austral Earth Map sl8 Sep 4 #7
VERY effective graphic comparison of Africa vs other regions, countries eppur_se_muova Sep 4 #8
I've had this argument with someone TlalocW Sep 4 #9
That is why every school and every home should have a globe. MineralMan Sep 4 #10
This is simply anti-Greenland propaganda Jose Garcia Sep 4 #11
Googling for square miles... nitpicked Sep 4 #12
Absolutely do not care about this. NT Happy Hoosier Sep 4 #13
Find this Mercator guy and put him under oath. Sneederbunk Sep 4 #14

newdeal2

(4,167 posts)
1. Trump will ban that idea as woke
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 09:04 AM
Sep 4

We all know the correct globe is the one showing America first and on top.

newdeal2

(4,167 posts)
5. He doesn't care too much. He just wants to control US
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 09:27 AM
Sep 4

He can then spread propaganda about how the rest of the world respects him and America now and the sheep will follow.

See what he did to the gulf and how all the map apps in the US complied.

TlalocW

(15,664 posts)
9. I've had this argument with someone
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 10:33 AM
Sep 4

That the Mercator is intentionally racist. It's not. It's just the shortcomings of how the map was made. Think of a globe with latitudes and longitudes criss-crossing. The closer you are to the poles, the more they're going to look like trapezoids with the top or bottom side (depending on the pole) smaller and the connecting sides "flaring" out. Mercator wanted to make s flat map useful for navigation. That meant turning those traps into squares/rectangles, which meant the top/bottom area (depending on the pole) being stretched more, distorting the size. Africa being more equatorial actually has the least amount of distorting. Advantage: More accurate shape. Disadvantage: Looks way smaller in area than it is compared to other places.

Cartography is not a school subject so no one got taught about the different limitations of maps. That said since cartograohy is not a school subject, it shouldn't matter that the map Africa wants be used.

But of course it will.

MineralMan

(149,792 posts)
10. That is why every school and every home should have a globe.
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 10:34 AM
Sep 4

As a kid, there was always one in the school classroom, in the library, and there was one in my family's house. I looked at them often and always consulted the globe when I wanted to find some place on the planet.

It's an essential reference for people who live on an oblate spheroid like Earth. Nothing else is accurate.

nitpicked

(1,367 posts)
12. Googling for square miles...
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 11:28 AM
Sep 4

Eurasia: 21.5 million
Africa: 11.7
North Am: 9.5
South Am: 6.9
Antarctica: about 5.5
Australia: 3.0

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