The True Size of Africa: A Small Contribution in the Fight Against Rampant Immappancy by Kai Krause, October 08, 2013 -

 

Kai Krause's map, "The True Size of Africa." Africa looks about the same size as Greenland in a Mercator projection, even though it is actually 14 times bigger; Krause’s map illustrates the fact that Africa is three times larger than the USA and larger than the USA, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe – combined!

 

 

 

Comparison between the Mercator projections (left) and Gall-Peters (right). Image: Wikipedia Commons / NASA.

 

 

 

 A reworking of Mr. Krause's map using Gall's Stereographic Cylindrical Projection (1855) with two standard parallels at 45°N and 45°S. Distortions are still evident at the poles, but, for most countries, shape is maintained, and their areas are shown correctly. As you can see, the results are distinct from Mr. Krause's map. But however you look at it, his point is a good one: Africa is much bigger than it looks on most maps (The Economist, op. cit.)

 

 

 

An Albers projection shows areas accurately, but distorts shapes (Wikipedia: Map projection)

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“In addition to the well-known social issues of illiteracy and innumeracy, there also should be such a concept as “immappancy,“ meaning insufficient geographical knowledge. A survey with random American schoolkids let them guess the population and land area of their country. Not entirely unexpected, but still rather unsettling, the majority chose “1-2 billion” and “largest in the world“, respectively. Even with Asian and European college students, geographical estimates were often off by factors of 2-3. This is partly due to the highly distorted nature of the predominantly used mapping projections (such as Mercator). A particularly extreme example is the worldwide misjudgment of the true size of Africa. This single image tries to embody the massive scale, which is larger than the USA, China, India, Japan, and all of Europe – combined!” (Kai Krause: The True Size of Africa).
Billionaire computer graphics guru Kai Krause is famous for founding MetaCreations Corp., his Kai's Power Tools series of products, and for his contributions to graphical user interface design. In December 2010, he also caused a stir by producing a map of Africa which was designed to illustrate the limitations of popular map projections of the world. “The mathematics of projection do not permit any particular map projection to be "best" for everything. Something will always get distorted. Therefore, a diversity of projections exists to service the many uses of maps and their vast range of scales.”
“Thematic maps normally require an equal area projection so that phenomena per unit area are shown in correct proportion. However, representing area ratios correctly necessarily distorts shapes more than many maps that are not equal-area. Hence, reference maps of the world often appear on compromise projections instead. Due to the severe distortions inherent in any map of the world, within reason, the choice of projection becomes largely one of æsthetics.”
“The Mercator projection, developed for navigational purposes, has often been used in world maps where other projections would have been more appropriate. This problem has long been recognized, even outside professional circles. For example, a 1943 New York Times editorial states: ‘The time has come to discard [the Mercator] for something that represents the continents and directions less deceptively... Although its usage... has diminished... it is still highly popular as a wall map apparently in part because, as a rectangular map, it fills a rectangular wall space with more map, and clearly because its familiarity breeds more popularity.’” (source).
“In 1973, Arno Peters (1916-2002) proposed a projection, also based on the work of Scottish clergyman James Gall (1808-1895), who had the right features for navigation and put the continents in real proportions, with the least possible distortion. Peters believed that the Mercator projection represented the countries the Equator line in a smaller size because they were less significant. The Gall-Peters projection is now the most accepted, but the enhancement and distortion of the northern hemisphere, especially Europe and North America, present on Mercator’s map, still remains in the popular imagination. Thinking about it, the German graphic designer Kai Krause created an image to represent the true size of the African continent” (source).
“G.D.”, in a blog for The Economist on November 10, 2010, points out that “In Mr. Krause's map, he seems to have used the shapes of the countries from a Mercator projection, but has scaled up the outline of Africa, without changing its shape, to show the appropriate area. An alternative and arguably more rigorous approach would be to repeat the exercise using an "equal area" projection that shows the countries' areas correctly while minimizing shape distortion. These two properties are the hardest to balance when showing the whole world on one map. I decided to rework Mr. Krause's map using Gall's Stereographic Cylindrical Projection (1855) with two standard parallels at 45°N and 45°S. Distortions are still evident at the poles, but, for most countries, shape is maintained, and their areas are shown correctly. As you can see (right), the results are distinct from Mr. Krause's map. But however you look at it, his point is a good one: Africa is much bigger than it looks on most maps” (source; also see Matt T. Rosenberg’s article in About.com, Geography, “Peters Projection vs. Mercator Projection”). From here.
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Pat Duncan, an old friend from Wales who now lives in Tenerife, for suggesting this material. 

From here.