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WORLD MAP LAB

Move a country around the world

See how its apparent size changes

SELECT A DESTINATIONChoose a country by flag198 / 198 ROUTES OPEN
198
SelectedNepal
Preparing the map…
Mercator28.3° / 83.9°

Try these comparisons

GREENLAND & AFRICA

Why does Greenland look so large?

On a Mercator world map, Greenland can look about as large as Africa.

But in reality, Africa is about 14 times the area of Greenland.

This is because Greenland lies at a high latitude, and Mercator makes high-latitude regions look larger.

They look about the same size on Mercator

Africa
Greenland

Compare their actual sizes

Africa
Greenland
The comparison below uses the same scale in the Equal Earth projection. This makes the actual area difference between Africa and Greenland visible. The statement that Africa is about 14 times larger is based on the official Equal Earth explanation. Source ↗

MERCATOR

Mercator

Mercator preserves local angles and can show constant-bearing routes as straight lines, but area grows strongly toward the poles.

EQUAL EARTH

Equal Earth

Equal Earth is an equal-area projection: relative areas are preserved, while shape, distance and direction can still be distorted.

WHY?

Why do world maps distort?

Earth is round. A world map is flat. Flattening a globe always changes something: area, shape, distance or direction.

See it on the globeExplore where countries sit on the spherical Earth.→Learn why the maps differMercator vs Equal Earth, explained.→
Learn more about this countryNepal →

Map geometry: the same world-atlas dataset already used by KOKKI EARTH. Boundaries are shown for learning and are not changed by this experiment.

LEARNING EQUIPMENT PR

Keep exploring with a world map.

After comparing projections on screen, open a world map and look again at distances, neighbouring countries and relative positions.

The link below leads to a product on Amazon Japan.

03EXPLOREWorld Map

See distances, neighbouring countries and their positions at a glance.

View on Amazon Japan ↗

As an Amazon Associate, KOKKI EARTH earns from qualifying purchases.