David Rumsey Map Collection
Renowned digital archive containing over 150,000 high-resolution historical maps, maritime charts, globes, and atlases from the 16th to 21st century.
The True Size Of… is an interactive educational map tool created by James Talmage and Damon Maneice. Because the traditional Mercator projection distorts the size of landmasses increasingly near the poles—making Greenland appear as large as Africa—this tool lets users search and drag country outlines across the globe to see their authentic scale.
Key Visual Geography Features
- Drag-and-Drop Scaling: Select any country or US state, drag it toward the equator or poles, and observe its outline reshape according to spherical geometry.
- Side-by-Side Superimposition: Place Greenland over Africa or South America to immediately appreciate the massive scale differences obscured by standard school maps.
- Multiple Country Comparisons: Stack multiple nations together to test geographic intuition.
- Cartographic Education: Demonstrates why representing a 3D sphere on a 2D surface mathematically necessitates geographic compromise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the Mercator projection distort country sizes?
The Mercator projection was created in 1569 for sea navigation because it preserves angles and straight compass bearings, but it severely inflates landmasses near the poles.
How big is Africa compared to Greenland in reality?
In reality, Africa (30.37M km²) is approximately 14 times larger than Greenland (2.16M km²), despite looking similar in size on Mercator maps.
Can I compare sub-national territories like US states or provinces?
Yes. The tool supports searching and dragging individual US states, Canadian provinces, and Australian states.
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