the physical world, as we've been taught, is GROSSLY misleading

ok
i just ran across this
a friend posted on fb

but it got to me immediately
i haven't researched it in detail
so my comments may be off
but on 1st take
this is wild !
as in crazy !
and especially so in a world that roots itself in scientific accuracy

i assume there is good reasoning behind the use of the popular map of the world
referred to as the Mercator map
apparently particularly useful for navigation

" The Mercator projection increasingly inflates the sizes of regions according to their distance from the equator. This inflation results, for example, in a representation of Greenland that is larger than Africa, whereas in reality Africa is 14 times as large. "

so the issue is one of distortion
the farther from the equator
the bigger the distortion

cool
that may have been appropriate for sailors back in the day

but here's the thing
why use that map to teach a child about the world ? ? ?

look
Mercator projection


look again
the Gall-Peters projection


as i said
i need to do more research
but check this internet page from BuzzFeed
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/19-maps-that-will-help-you-put-the-united-states-in-perspect

to get the effect of the distortion
compare Greenland (in white at top of map) to africa
and compare africa to usa ...

here are a couple other comparisons at BuzzFeed

brasil fit into the usa


china fit into the usa


most blatant comparison


i repeat
i don't accept this as fair until i've done more research

the following is from a wikipedia article on the issue (underlining is mine)
In 1989 and 1990, after some internal debate, seven North American geographic organizations adopted the following resolution,[22][33] which rejected all rectangular world maps, a category that includes both the Mercator and the Gall–Peters projections:
WHEREAS, the earth is round with a coordinate system composed entirely of circles, and
WHEREAS, flat world maps are more useful than globe maps, but flattening the globe surface necessarily greatly changes the appearance of Earth's features and coordinate systems, and
WHEREAS, world maps have a powerful and lasting effect on people's impressions of the shapes and sizes of lands and seas, their arrangement, and the nature of the coordinate system, and
WHEREAS, frequently seeing a greatly distorted map tends to make it "look right,"
THEREFORE, we strongly urge book and map publishers, the media and government agencies to cease using rectangular world maps for general purposes or artistic displays. Such maps promote serious, erroneous conceptions by severely distorting large sections of the world, by showing the round Earth as having straight edges and sharp corners, by representing most distances and direct routes incorrectly, and by portraying the circular coordinate system as a squared grid. The most widely displayed rectangular world map is the Mercator (in fact a navigational diagram devised for nautical charts), but other rectangular world maps proposed as replacements for the Mercator also display a greatly distorted image of the spherical Earth.

nuff said for now ...
wow