Eli5 Why is Africa frequently shown as smaller than its actua size on maps? (Or I guess why are maps in general not proportionate??)

Question

I’ve seen a (non) literal billion maps with different depictions of how large Africa is. I gather that it is actually far larger than the United States, but it doesn’t usually seem to be depicted that way. This seriously confuses me. ISS flyovers give a good idea of the difference. Why are so many maps disproportionate?

In: Technology

Answer 1

There’s no clean way to convert from a sphere to a flat drawing. Different maps use different methods of conversion, but each method tends to distort certain continents by making them look bigger or smaller. You can read about the Mercator projection for more details.