Size Does Matter/ Visualizing Equal-Area Maps
From a young age, children are taught about geography. Their attempts at understanding it must first start with an established measuring system and a well-known place. Perhaps it's through a relatively simple exercise like counting the number of steps it takes to go from the classroom door to their desk. When they are able to see and feel it for themselves, they can comprehend non-tangible ideas (distance plus location). As the years progress, so do their ideas. No longer are they taking local measurements; but have moved to bigger places: their state, country, continent, hemisphere, planet, galaxy, universe, and beyond. Even as adults, it's virtually impossible to comprehend the massiveness of our universe. It's even hard to understand how big our country really is!
In "Size Does Matter: Visualizing Equal-Area Maps", I have taken the opportunity to make the intangible tangible and correct common misconceptions. I found that it's important for you to understand the true relationship between North and South America, both physically and mathematically speaking, to get a full understanding of where we (Southerns and Northerners) come from. This project draws visual comparisons between country land sizes in relation to its neighbors; and it's delivered in the form of an educational kit.
Because Earth is round, there exists a need to translate curves onto planes. For example, we grew up using Mercator projection maps; a name you may not have heard, while others seldom realize that this is just one of many possible map projections of the world. This particular representation distorts the size and shape of large objects because "areas farther away from the equator appear disproportionately large."1 Basically, land masses get bigger towards the poles, where they become infinite.... An idea too big to comprehend and where something just doesn't sound right.
The case is true when we look at Alaska. On this map, it looks as though it has slightly more land area than Brazil, when in fact Brazil is actually more than five times that of Alaska! But if one were to put an accurate map, known as an equal-area projection, most people would be speculating some form of error.
