Why is the Northern Hemisphere bigger on maps?

Mercator maps distort the shape and relative size of continents, particularly near the poles. This is why Greenland appears to be similar in size to all of South America on Mercator maps, when in fact South America is more than eight times larger than Greenland.

Why does Canada look so big on a map?

Canada, with a size of 9,984,670 sq km, has almost equal size of China (9,596,961 sq km), but its proximity to the North Pole makes it look much larger than China. On a normal global map, it looks almost the same size as a north European country like, say Finland (338,424 sq km).

Why are map sizes distorted?

Because you can’t display 3D surfaces perfectly in two dimensions, distortions always occur. For example, map projections distort distance, direction, scale, and area. Every projection has strengths and weaknesses. All in all, it is up to the cartographer to determine what projection is most favorable for its purpose.

Why is the world map not to scale?

But despite its ubiquity, the Mercator projection does not accurately reflect the true size of countries given the impossibility of representing a 3D object on a 2D surface. In fact, the projection distorts the size of objects as the latitude increases from the equator to the poles, where the scale becomes infinite.

Why does Antarctica look so big on a map?

The map is thereby conformal. As a side effect, the Mercator projection inflates the size of objects away from the equator. As a result, landmasses such as Greenland and Antarctica appear far larger than they actually are relative to landmasses near the equator, such as Central Africa.

Which continent appears much wider than it really is compared to the other continents?

But his method resulted in massive distortions of the relative sizes of the continents, dramatically shrinking Africa and making Europe, North America and particularly Greenland look much bigger than they actually are. Antarctica appears to be the largest continent.

Why are countries bigger on maps?

In reality, lines of longitude converge at the poles; on the map, they’re parallel. As a result, the closer you get to the poles, the more distorted the map becomes, and the bigger things look relative to their actual size.

Why is Africa smaller on maps?

The world map you are probably familiar with is called the Mercator projection (below), which was developed all the way back in 1569 and greatly distorts the relative areas of land masses. It makes Africa look tiny, and Greenland and Russia appear huge.

Why do countries look bigger on a map?

Do the land areas around the north and south poles appear larger or smaller in size than they really are?

But look at what happened to lines of latitude on a Mercator projection. The lines get farther apart as you move away from the Equator. This means that distances are not true. It also means that the sizes of landmasses near the North and South Poles are greatly exaggerated in size.

Why does the northern hemisphere appear larger than the southern hemisphere?

It lets you visualize how large countries really are. Because the distortion of Antarctica is so severe, cartographers tend to just crop the continent off. However, that leads to another new problem. The northern hemisphere, in this case, appears larger than its southern counterpart.

Why do maps always show the north as up?

Why do maps always show the north as up? For those who don’t just take it for granted, the common answer is that Europeans made the maps and they wanted to be on top.

Why is North America at the top of the world map?

North is at the top but nobody cares about north because we’re not going there.” Even so, he could have put the map either way up. Perhaps the choice was simply because the Europeans were doing most of the exploring at the time: in the northern hemisphere, there is far more land to explore and far more people.

Why do North Americans claim top-notch cartographic real estate?

But there’s really no good reason for the north to claim top-notch cartographic real estate over any other bearing, as an examination of old maps from different places and periods can confirm.