The World As You Know It

Ready to have your mind blown?  Then buckle up.

Because unless you had a unique schooling experience as a young child, chances are everything you were taught about the shape of the world is a lie.  Such was the case from my experience, anyway.

And why is that?  Because I was taught that THIS:

is what the world looks like.  That is the Mercator Projection, designed by Gerardus Mercator is 1569; it's the one we all know, and the one most people accept as the true face of the earth.

But reality paints a very different picture of our globe.

"Are you saying the map is wrong?"

Oh yes, dear reader.  Yes, indeed.  The map is so very, very wrong.

If it please the court, I'd like now to introduce

Exhibit A:  a little thing called the Gall–Peters Projection (Also simply called the Peters Projection):

The Peters Projection also states that North is South and East is West, making it extra complicated:

And THAT, sweet earthling, is where you actually live; the shape your world actually takes.

Not the same, is it?  Notice how the size of certain places change.

You see, the Mercator map has been distorted with inaccuracy to accentuate certain countries, while minimizing others --

-- because, as it is so elegantly explained in Episode 16, Season 2 of The West Wing,

"In our society we unconsciously equate size with importance... and even power."

Incredible?  Perhaps.

But true.