The African Union supports a campaign to repair maps, which really reduces the size of the continent

Criticism that the projection of Mercator does not accurately reflect the true size of Africa is not new.

However, the last campaign conducted by African Da`wah groups is gaining momentum over the Internet because it urges organizations and schools to adopt the landing of the equal land, which they say accurately the largest size of a continent with more than 1.4 billion people.

the African UnionThe Diplomatic Organization, which includes 55 countries, supported the campaign last week in what the defenders call a landmark.

Here is what to know about the effort to show the true size of Africa of the world.

Africa looks very small on most modern maps

The Mercator Map was created in the sixteenth century by the map of the Flemish maps. The map is designed for European navigators at sea, and the map is distorted by expanding areas near pillars such as North America and Greenland while reducing Africa and South America.

The Earth’s equal projection for the year 2018 is a modern map that follows the curvature of the earth and the continents appear in its real dimensions, unlike the distorted Mercator map.

Mercator is still common in classrooms and technology platforms. Google Maps The projection used widely dropped on a 3D football desktop in 2018, but users can return to the old map. The mobile phone application is still virtual to drop Mercator.

Groups campaign to replace the global map

Two groups of African advocacy, Africa, did not liquidate and speak in Africa, a campaign in April to push schools, followed by international organizations and the media, to use equal landing, which says that the real size of Africa is more accurately.

“Correcting the map is not just an African issue. It is a real issue and accuracy related to the entire world. When the entire generations, in Africa and other places, learn from a distorted map, it develops a biased vision of Africa’s role in the world,” said Var Nadia, co -founder and vice executive director to speak in Africa.

Ndiaye added that the decreasing representation of Africa reduces the demographic, economic and strategic importance.

The African Union supported the campaign on August 14, the largest body to log in to the campaign so far, which represents a great milestone for the change campaign.

Geographic says that the dropping of Mercator is old

Mark Montmoner, a professor of geography at the University of Sirkios, said that the overthrow of Meruer was outdated and that the geographies have long advised people not to use it as a global map.

“It was a useful transmission tool in the sixteenth century, because it contains straight lines, giving the navigators a line of continuous direction of sailing,” Montmooner said. “But outside this very narrow application, there is no use in using it.”

Although the maps that followed the curvature of the earth, such as the dropping of the equal earth, offer a more accurate measure of real sizes, it warned that tape graphs remain the best way to compare different continents.

“When you put irregular areas on flat paper, people will face a difficult time in comparing the size of the ground.”

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