> Accurate maps of the globe are enlightening.
Despite its shortcomings I'd argue that Mercator projection maps (in general) are accurate.
Mercator is conformal. Angles are accurate, that's all. It provides accurate navigation, which is great if you are planning a boat trip with middle-ages technology, but not fit for any other purpose.
That was kinda my point; unqualified "accuracy" is not an useful metric for evaluating map projections, as most of them are accurate in one way or another (and inaccurate in other ways).
Arguably the "best" (general purpose) projections are the least "accurate" ones because they use a compromises between different projections to make a visually appealing map.
China, the US and Canada are all nearly the same size (9.5 million, 9.1 million and 9 million km^2, respectively).
Russia on the other hand is significantly bigger (16.3 million km^2) - bigger than even Antarctica (14 million km^2).
Re:True size of Africa
by johnsonman on Sunday February 16, 2014 @09:48PM
(#7250352)
Wikipedia says 9.6, 9.8, and 10.0 million km^2 respectively. Do these numbers include something (e.g. water) that the numbers you quoted don't? (They also peg Russia at 17.0 million km^2)
The numbers are land-only, but there are multiple conflicting ways of calculating it often due to land disputes. For instance, Taiwan/Tibet/etc. wrt China
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_area...
Accurate maps of the globe are enlightening.