Maps of the World

   Today in class we talked about the different maps of our world, and which ones were the accurate ones. The Mercator map was invented in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator. The map altered the longitude and latitude lines of a map by making them 90 degrees. By doing this, sailors at this time no longer had to calculate their bearings for their trips. It made planning their trips a lot easier. This map stuck around and was even used in schools and is used today. We have become used to this map and we perceive it as the actual size of the continents. However, in 1974, the Peter's map was presented. This map was said to be more accurate than the Mercator. The continents sizes were no longer distorted, and all them were proportional to their actual size. When I first saw the Peter's map, I saw the obvious difference and I was in disbelief. I had seen the Mercator map my entire life, and now looking at the Peter's map, my whole perspective of our world changed immensely. We also talked about how the size of a continent affects it's "confidence". The bigger the country or continent the more confidence they have. This map changes a lot about this. For example, Russia and Greenland are a decreased in size greatly. This could change their confidence as countries.