I Can Show You the World.. Shining, Shimmering.. Skewed..
February 18, 2007 by Rene Gube
If this is the only world that you know, the following reading will LITERALLY change the way you see the world forever.
Forreals.
The map you see above, is the world that I was taught. I’ll venture to say that it was the world that you were all taught as well. For me, it began in my seventh grade geography class… time to learn the world, said the California Public School System. And I learned it. According to the map above, I learned the following:
-Europe is in the middle.
-Greenland is humongous. Like bigger than Africa.
-Russia is ginormous. Like twice as big as Africa.
-Canada is about the size of Africa.
All. Lies. Feel betrayed? So did I. Here’s the explanation:
All cartographers (map-makers) are presented with the same challenge. How do you take the surface of a spherical object and make it flat? To make a perfectly rectangular map is impossible without distorting the shape of the earth’s surface somehow. What you see above is just one cartographer’s attempt at depicting the world. This cartographer’s name is Gerardus Mercator, and he introduced his map the Mercator Projection, in 1569. Eventually, his map found it’s way into ALL of our textbooks.
Here’s the problem with the Mercator Projection: whereas most of us would agree that that the equator is an imaginary line than is drawn around the Earth HALFWAY between the north and south poles, Gerardus Mercator places the equator in the bottom third of his map. Check it:
The Mercator Projection “…increasingly inflates the sizes of regions according to their distance from the equator.” In other words, the spaces above and below the equator both represent HALF OF THE WORLD. Only the top portion of the map stretches half of the world onto roughly 66% of the map, while the bottom portion of the map squeezes half of the world onto roughly 33% of the map.
The Result? Europe slides into the center of the world. Places like Greenland, Russia, and Canada get mad stretched out, and appear falsely beastastic. Africa gets chumped.
This is what a map of the world looks like if the equator is placed in the center of the map, the Gall-Peters Projection:
When the northern and southern halves of the world each get half of the map, we get a more accurate perspective of the world. Notice that Greenland is not the beast it once posed to be. In reality, Africa is 13 times as large as Greenland. Clearly, Greenland’s pants are aflame. Also, Europe is no longer located in the center of the world. Instead, Africa occupies center, much like Whoopi on Hollywood Squares.
February 18, 2007 at 11:21 pm |
And…who’s to say up is Greenland and Australia is down (under?). If you were in space then really there is no up or down, right? I think I watched a movie on this while getting my credential…
http://www.diversophy.com/petersmap.htm
February 19, 2007 at 7:09 pm |
wow that really changes the way i look at the world…thank you rene for that insight…putang ina i didnt realize the EQ was on teh bottom 1/3-ish of the map like that…africa is eph-ING HUGENORMOUS!
February 19, 2007 at 8:30 pm |
thank you, mr. g., for continuing to enlighten young minds all over the world…the forreal, unskewed world…where africa looks more like a 12oz t-bone steak than a deformed jelly bean. what the heck am i talking about? i’m hungry.
February 19, 2007 at 11:34 pm |
On February 19, 2007 at 7:09 pm, Alex said
alex.
this is an “each-one-teach-one” moment you and i are sharing.. go forth, and spread the good word:
AFRICA: the hugenormous continent.
February 23, 2007 at 11:14 am |
wow, i think i learned more here than in my entire life. darn american education system.
February 24, 2007 at 7:20 pm |
hmm…..WTF!?….! i’m confooosed.
was this your own theory you came up with or spreading someone else’s good news? or.. just a random thought?
February 25, 2007 at 10:11 pm |
On February 24, 2007 at 7:20 pm, j-ann said
Hey J-Ann,
this is not my theory, i am as you would put it “spreading someone else’s good news”… i thought i’d share something that demonstrated the power of perspective and its truth-bending potential..
March 5, 2007 at 7:55 pm |
Did you really just realize this? Is this really so mind boggling? Have you never seen a globe before?
March 5, 2007 at 11:13 pm |
dope-illis-funkty-freshness-rad-wow-bakit-why-bekas-kasi-thats-why!!!
whow… i can see clearly now mercator projection is gone. (look, its quezon city!)
March 6, 2007 at 1:00 pm |
On March 5, 2007 at 7:55 pm, allan said
Really people. Let’s all make a note and rule of this for future reference:
As soon as ALLAN learns about a given topic or perspective, we will all STOP discussing that topic IMMEDIATELY… for it is officially old news upon Allan’s discovery.
Allan, you are a man amongst boys. For knowing about stuff before we know about stuff, and for belittling others’ revelations with your triumphant wisdom… you truly wear the smartest pants in all the land… the rest of us are in capris.
March 14, 2007 at 11:22 am |
that is MINDBLOWING!! i wonder if this geological revelation can somehow support the The Replacement Hypothesis. hmm..
March 18, 2007 at 5:00 pm |
your so way off! everyone knows that green land is not a giant they did stretch it out for the purposes of the world being round. But They are not trying to trick anyone you have to read the map right then youd understand why they do what they did.
March 19, 2007 at 12:44 pm |
On March 18, 2007 at 5:00 pm, jason said
good point, jason..
when i referenced greenland as a “liar liar pants on fire,” i was attempting to dish a wordplay joke, and not to imply that greenland actually intended to lie to us and appear larger than they are.
in fact, if you read the article again… you’ll notice that i don’t accuse anyone of intentionally trying to lie to us . the truth is that gerardus mercatur projected his map this way because it was ideal for nautical navigation.
what i am saying is that this map is the single most prevalent depiction of the world. it dominates most social studies textbooks in our educational system. the books we are told to look to for “the answers”.. with this is in mind, would you say the proportions of the continents are obvious to to average joe?
April 21, 2007 at 3:20 pm |
mmk…..[x……i dont even know why im here.lol do you guys have myspaces? im jynx. add me. im 14. myspace.com/winniethepooh_happy
April 22, 2007 at 12:50 am |
so…uh….does that make Africa the 2nd largest continent?
April 29, 2007 at 7:33 am |
:begin nerd talk:
The reason why the map is projected, as stated before, is because of navigation. During the time period that this map was developed, Europeans were trying to make sense of the world and needed an excuse to use a compass to continue to “find” the new world and enslave its natural inhabitants. Since most students would know cardinal direction (north, east, south, west), this would be a place in which they can relate what they know with what they see. The reason why the equator is placed lower on the map is because the map that is presented is missing Antarctica. Another reason is that most of the land mass on the Earth is in the northern hemisphere. Yes, the size of everything is distorted. In reality, no one map is really good for displaying all the perspectives in showing the information. That’s why there’s different kinds of maps. For example, conical maps are used for street maps because they show distance well but only in a very small area. The best way to show a 3-D Earth on a 2-D surface is by using something like google Earth (which I do use in the classroom) to show students that Greenland and Antarctica are not the biggest continents.
:end nerd talk: