The True Size Of...

If you have a look at the world map, some countries seem to be the same size, but in reality the distance varies enormously. On the website The True Size Of... they show you the true size of every country. You can compare how big or small a country really is compared to another (and that is incredibly fun to play with!). How big is the United States compared to Australia? And what about Europe? Your image of the world will never be the same again!

United States vs. Australia

Take, for example, Australia: we have learned that this continent is huge, but if you look at the traditional world map that is pretty hard to imagine. We have compared the United States (minus Alaska and Hawaii) in comparison to Australia. They are practically the same size!

Australia vs. Europe

If you compare Australia with Europe... Wow! Australia just got a lot bigger than it appears on the traditional world map. Try it yourself. You might be surprised at what you find!

The traditional world map

With The True Size Of... you will realize that the widely accepted traditional world map (you probably have one at home) is not correct! For example, Greenland seems much larger than the United States, but as you can see below, this is not at all the case. This also applies to Russia, which of course is a big country, but actually about as large as the north of the African continent and that part of the world seems a lot smaller on the traditional map!

Why is the traditional world map not correct?

This is quite simple to explain: in 1596 the Mercator projection was developed for sailors to navigate. This is the traditional map that you see everywhere. Since the Earth is round (Yes, flat-earthers, it is round; not flat), it is almost impossible to develop a map on a flat surface, without having the countries change shape. That is why Greenland is so stretched and Antarctica seems like a huge continent on the Mercator projection world map.

A Japanese artist of a geometric design company recently designed a world map on a flat surface, that is very very close to reality.

Do you want to explore the real size of these countries? Book your flight at BudgetAir.com.