Turns out all the maps are wrong, you don't live where you think you live and we've been taught to look at the Earth upside-down. Cartographers use a 2D projection to convert our spherical world into a flat world for mapping purposes; which distorts the hell out of everything and misrepresents the sizes of geography everywhere. This projection is called the Mercator Projection. After a couple scientists watched an episode of The West Wing (see clip below), they created this app, The True Size Of.., with the hope teachers would use it to show their students just how big the world is.
