Scientists to this day have not come to a consensus on how to most correctly display the relief of a spherical planet on a flat sheet of paper. It's like drawing a map on a tangerine, peeling off the skin and trying to flatten it into a rectangle. It is clear that the regions close to the "poles" will have to be strongly stretched.
We all use the Gerard Mercator projection, but it has a drawback: the closer the islands and countries are located to the poles, the larger they seem.
The true size of Greenland
First, look at Greenland. Big island, right? Almost like South America.
But when you move Greenland to the latitude of the United States, you can see that it is not so big at all. And when transferred to the equator, it is completely clear that this is just an island, and not a giant island.
But what would happen if Australia were at the latitude of Russia and Europe
Australia seems to be small in size. Firstly, it is close to the equator, and secondly, it is distant from other continents and there is nothing to compare it with. But look at these cards.
Notice how the shape of Australia has changed as you move north. This is because part of it is located beyond the Arctic Circle, that is, very close to the pole, and is greatly stretched on the projection.
But the United States (without Alaska) in comparison with Australia. As it turned out, they are almost the same size.
Mexico turns out to be quite a big country.
But the real size of the most mysterious continent - Antarctica
What about the true size of Russia?
Russia is not only the largest country, but also the northernmost. That is why on the map it looks like just a giant, which is even larger than many continents.
But moving Russia to the equator, we will see that it has decreased two or three times.
And this is how the size of Alaska gradually changes as it moves towards the equator
This is what China would look like if it were a northern country like Canada
India, compared to Russia and the US, is not at all as small as it seems
If the Democratic Republic of the Congo were in Europe, there would be almost no room for other countries
The largest African countries at the latitude of Russia
All countries on the African continent look somehow small. This is all due to the fact that they are located on the equator. See how the Republic of the Congo has covered nearly half of the US and most of Europe.
Algeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Libya and Chad are fairly large countries, but this is usually not visible due to their position. But in fact, if these five countries are “blinded” together, in terms of area they will be almost like Russia.
Let's arrange the six largest countries along the equator. Now they are on an equal footing
