Why Do Countries Have Different Shapes on Maps?

Imagine the Earth is like a basketball, and you want to draw it on a flat piece of paper. If you try to flatten it, things get stretched or squashed! That's why countries can look very different on maps, depending on how we flatten the Earth onto paper.

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Examples

A map might make Greenland look bigger than Africa, even though Africa is actually much larger.
If you draw the Earth on a paper like it's wrapped around a can, some parts get stretched out and look weird.
Countries that are close to the top or bottom of the map might seem enormous compared to ones near the middle.

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Categories: Science · maps,geography,projection