In the last 500 years, to give knowledge about our planet to children a certain kind of map has been used in schools. But public schools in Boston have made a big change that has altered the way you think about the world. Whenever we talk about Africa, then it is always considered as one heterogeneous block that is opposed to a vast continent containing more than 50 diverse countries. This is not the only misunderstanding, most of us see the image of Africa on the Africa Jigsaw map which is completely inaccurate. This is not because of the cartographers, the reason behind this is to reflect a sphere on a flat surface that will lead to distortions. But some people believe that Africa is really the size of Greenland through this map.
RelatedPosts
Mercator Projection
A graphical user interface designer, Kai Krause designed an Africa map to show the people just how enormous Africa really is. This map also has some flaws like all other maps. It seems like Krause have used the shapes of the countries from a Mercator projection (the old map from faded school textbooks named by Gerardus Mercator) but has scaled up the outline of Africa and to show the appropriate area, he didn’t change its shape. But according to Krause, this was not an attempt to create an accurate map. This was created to show just how the rest of the world underestimates Africa because of its size and many other aspects. Krause thinks that his work can play a small role in changing the perceptions of the people about the continent. Gerardus Mercator designed a whole world that is drawn on paper along colonial lines to flex their border biceps. Because of this, we’ve to face many problems now, as we discussed below.
1. It is nowhere near to scale.
2. Mercator just moved the equator so Europe is not the center of the universe.
3. When you watch the news, you see North America so big but it is nowhere near that big.
4. If we talk about South America then it should be twice the size of Europe.
5. Africa should be 14 times greater than Greenland and three times greater than Australia while Alaska is three times greater than its actual big sibling Mexico.
African Jigsaw Puzzle
Puzzles are the best mental games that help you to enhance the power of your brain. African themed Jigsaw Puzzle is one of the best indoor activities. It is an ideal gift for a birthday, Halloween, or Christmas. African 100 piece puzzle is one of the best puzzles for decoration in your bedroom or living room.
Peters Projection
The new maps that are used in public schools of Boston will be Peters Projection. A two-dimensional reflection of a spherical world will always be flawed so we can say that no map is perfect. Even the derivation of the world shows some vulnerability that comes from the Latin word “Mappa” which means “Napkin”. This word is used to describe the surfaces that are firstly used to draw them. The Peter Projection also has some blemishes as it appears stretched because there is just not enough land to effectively translate onto a flat map.
According to the cartographers, people unconsciously equate the size of importance and even power. They explain, when third-world countries are misrepresented, their value becomes less. Google Maps are based on the Mercator projection. The whispered notion is that Africa Jigsaw map is bigger and better than the rest of the world. Every journey or adventure starts with a map but one wrong foot can misdirect you that can become a misadventure for you. It’s easy to get lost but to make sure that nobody is following in your footsteps is a bit hard.
