Where did the change begin?
Labs / Geography
Map Projection Distortion
You cannot flatten a sphere without tearing or stretching it. Switch between Mercator, equal-area, and azimuthal projections and watch the same coastlines and grid of little circles deform. Each blue circle should be the same size on the ground — where it balloons or squashes, the map is lying about area or shape. Move your cursor over the map to read the local distortion.
Labs / Geography / Map Projection Distortion
Map Projection Distortion
You cannot flatten a sphere without tearing or stretching it. Switch between Mercator, equal-area, and azimuthal projections and watch the same coastlines and grid of little circles deform. Each blue circle should be the same size on the ground — where it balloons or squashes, the map is lying about area or shape. Move your cursor over the map to read the local distortion.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Geography explains how places, people, and Earth systems affect one another. This model lets you change one factor and watch its effects spread across space.
Explore
Try the model
area —shape ω —Grn —Afr —
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- On Mercator, Greenland (2.2M km²) looks nearly as big as Africa (30.4M km²). How much does the “shown” area shrink when you switch to equal-area?
- Why do the Tissot circles stay perfectly round on Mercator but grow enormous near the poles, while equal-area keeps them the same size but squashes them into ellipses?
- Slide the standard parallel up to 45°. Where does the map now become true-to-scale, and which places pay for it with the most distortion?
- Switch to the azimuthal view. What happens to shapes and distances as you drag the cursor from the centre point out toward the rim?
- Can any single flat map show area, shape, and distance all correctly at once — or does fixing one always break another?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Connect the pattern to place: identify where the change begins, where its effects appear, and which process links those locations.
Check
Before you leave
What spatial pattern appeared?
Which process connects the cause and effect?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.