'You could fit 45 Netherlands inside Indonesia': Wannabe cartographer 'tak[es] Indonesia outdonesia' to reveal wild size comparison

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Ally Perry • Writer and Editor
Apr 4, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

Many maps are lying to us. I don't mean this in a flat earth kind of way, but rather in the sense that they tend to give certain countries preferential treatment. Much as Americans and many others in this world would like to act as if the United States is the center of the universe, it's not quite as big and impressive as it often gets made out to be with the art of cartography.

A great case study that proves this point is Indonesia. This is what one TikToker went viral for demonstrating, showing how the Southeast Asian country was so large that it could create a bridge between the UK and the East Coast. A lot of viewers were astounded by this impressive revelation, although some real map heads had to dispute the OP's disdain for the Mercator projection. It looks like many people badly need a geography lesson.

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  • 01
    via cirruslyyesterday
  • 02
    Mason Ganchar I really don't understand why people have started hating the Mercator projection lately; Literally all 2d representations of the earth have issues.
    via Mason Ganchar
  • 03
    Turnertiles It's only been 500 years since the Mercator projection became the standard and people are only just realising the difficulty of representing a globe
    via Turnertiles
  • 04
    tgilly using Indonesia to shame the Netherlands is justice
    via tgilly
  • 05
    eyyow as indonesian i always wondering with road trip culture in US, how yall do that.. even we drove almost a day we would only move to another province
    via eyyow
  • 06
    Christina Perella True size of countries is a fun exercise but the Mercator is just one of many map projections that all have trade offs of shape/size/angle/ distance
    via Christina Perella
  • 07
    YourName Bruh what i thought indonesia was tiny
    via YourName
  • 08
    Tammy (Taylor's Version) The Mercator projection allows you to draw a straight line from point a to point b and actually get to where you want to go.
    via Tammy (Taylor's Version)
  • 09
    Devon Peticolas The math for Indonesia is wild. It's both the worlds largest Muslim country and still has more Christians than the UK
    via Devon Peticolas
  • 10
    sash indonesians complain often about how expensive flights from one end of the country to the other, and i always tell them this. indonesia is HUGE!!
    via sash
  • 11
    townji If you don't know, we in Indonesia have three different time zones. WIT(east), WITA (middle), WIB (west)
    via townji
  • 12
    Danny Forbes-Sarwar I actually can't cope with this information at this time of night I can't do this now
    via Danny Forbes-Sarwar
  • 13
    googoo gaga :D ive always been under the impression that US is still bigger than ID... and i'm indonesian :D
    via googoo gaga
  • 14
    As a canadian i literally can't wrap my brain around the projection being wrong Imao i like thinking my country is massive
    via .
  • 15
    ZZZ Now I know why sometimes the price to go from a local island to other other local island is more expensive than going abroad
    via zzz
  • 16
    Chester girl exactly. I presented this fact as an intro of one of my assignments (during my masters in europe), and I kid you not. Everybody was like
    via Chester girl
  • 17
    camwegian89 The west wing episode on this is one of my faves
    via camwegian89
  • 18
    K Keyscorner Just went down a rabbit hole I didn't know existed. I need to be re educated.
    via Keyscorner
  • 19
    DOCTOR HTS, PRIVILE Dr. DJ R. If you are going to say a chain of islands does or does not fit when projected onto the US, then include Alaska
    via Dr. DJ R.
  • 20
    rachhhhhhhel technically u can fit WAY more than 45 netherlands in indonesia bcs the waters are also indonesia
    via rachhhhhhhel
  • 21
    l gear is so cooli gay people were re Ram:] dude I'm Irish and i can't even comprehend a country bigger than like. France. This is terrifying to me
    via Ram :]

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