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Greenland Is No Longer Larger Than Africa As Google Maps Drops Mercator Projections
An iPhone user uses Google Maps in New York, United States (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In what could probably be seen as a tech giant trolling proponents of flat-earth theories, Google has updated its Maps platform to drop the earlier Mercator maps in favour of three-dimensional globe. This means, Greenland will no longer appear larger than Africa when a user zooms out completely on the app.
The earlier Mercator projection allowed for easier representation on a two-dimensional plane, but resulted in factual inaccuracies regarding the area of landmasses. Due to the map’s “stretched-out” nature, areas near the poles appeared larger than they should be while areas near the equator appeared fine.
Thus, Greenland, which is times smaller than Africa would appear larger, a phenomenon that was shared by Scandinavian nations as well owing to their location.
Google’s other mapping platform, Google Earth, however has always provided 3D maps.
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