Peters Projection

This world map is called a Peters projection. The map is designed so that all the land is sized in the correct proportions. This is what the earth would actually look like if you flattened it out. When I first saw the map I was shocked at how different it was then the world map that I was always shown in school. Africa and South America appear almost twice as big, while North America and Europe are nearly half the “normal” size. Apparently the world map shown in school was used originally for marine navigation, and was never intended to show the correct size of land masses. Some say that the distorted maps we see give us a distorted perspective on world affairs, seeing the western powers as being more important than they really are. I wonder what people in the southern hemisphere think about this map: they likely have been viewing distorted European maps their whole lives also.