The true Size of Africa

Razor

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I must thank civfanatic for telling me about how the African landmass on maps is not properly depicted.

This is how a normal map of the world looks



Africa is the second largest continent, then why does it look smaller than North America?

This is how big Africa really is

Trackwhack, let me just point out that in most cases Africa is the one that is represented in its true form and size. Other landmasses like N. America, Antarctica, Northern Asia, Greenland etc are heavily distorted. For example, in most world maps, Greenland will be about the size of Africa, while in reality Africa is about 15 times bigger.
It depends on where the center of the map is and what projection is used. Normal maps that we see in our daily lives usually have minimal distortion for regions near the equator and maximum for polar regions.

There are several varieties of projections. Check them out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection
 
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Bangalorean

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This is a trick of the mercator projection, where we try to depict a spherical mass on a flat surface. Places closer to the equator will look much smaller than they really are, and places away from the equator will look much bigger than they really are.

So, Russia is not as huge as it looks (though it still is pretty huge), Greenland is not as huge as it looks, India is not as small as it looks, and Africa is not as small as it looks.

Also, try this - open google maps and "travel" Northwards and Southwards of the equator, and see how the scale of the map changes.
 

civfanatic

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Off topic, but the map of Africa with all the countries and continents placed inside it reminded me of this:



I think he is using the Mercator projection, check out Africa in southeast Russia. :D
 
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Godless-Kafir

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Why does India look so big next to USA? I think without Alaska then USA is only twice as big as India?

I guess only by adding Alaska does USA get to 9,000million squire kilometers?
 
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Godless-Kafir

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Also does any one know how many people have Dark Skin(africa and equatorial regions), Brown Skin and Pale Skin(Europe and East Asians).

Is there any way to know the proportions of this?
 
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Razor

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Why does India look so big next to USA? I think without Alaska then USA is only twice as big as India?

I guess only by adding Alaska does USA get to 9,000million squire kilometers?
The USA is about 9.6 M Sq. km or about 9.8 M sq. km. (I suspect the second measurement takes into account territorial waters). And Alaska is about 1.7 M sq. km.
So, 9.8 M - 1.7 M = 8.1 M ~ 8 M

Area of India = (just over) 3.2 M sq. km
 
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W.G.Ewald

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Which projection is best?
The mathematics of projection do not permit any particular map projection to be "best" for everything. Something will always get distorted. Therefore a diversity of projections exists to service the many uses of maps and their vast range of scales.

Modern national mapping systems typically employ a transverse Mercator or close variant for large-scale maps in order to preserve conformality and low variation in scale over small areas. For smaller-scale maps, such as those spanning continents or the entire world, many projections are in common use according to their fitness for the purpose.[1]

Thematic maps normally require an equal area projection so that phenomena per unit area are shown in correct proportion.[2] However, representing area ratios correctly necessarily distorts shapes more than many maps that are not equal-area. Hence reference maps of the world often appear on compromise projections instead. Due to the severe distortions inherent in any map of the world, within reason the choice of projection becomes largely one of æsthetics.

The Mercator projection, developed for navigational purposes, has often been used in world maps where other projections would have been more appropriate.[3][4][5][6] This problem has long been recognized even outside professional circles. For example a 1943 New York Times editorial states:

The time has come to discard [the Mercator] for something that represents the continents and directions less deceptively... Although its usage... has diminished... it is still highly popular as a wall map apparently in part because, as a rectangular map, it fills a rectangular wall space with more map, and clearly because its familiarity breeds more popularity.[7]

A controversy in the 1980s over the Peters map motivated the American Cartographic Association (now Cartography and Geographic Information Society) to produce a series of booklets (including Which Map is Best[8]) designed to educate the public about map projections and distortion in maps. In 1989 and 1990, after some internal debate, seven North American geographic organizations adopted a resolution recommending against using any rectangular projection (including Mercator and Gall–Peters) for reference maps of the world.[6][9]
 

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