One of the things about having part of your life open to others is they start to feed you the good stuff.
It happened yesterday when my friend Alfred Thompson shared this image.
His friends joined into the discussion and soon, two URL were shared that kept me busy for a while. Remember me and maps? Alfred was good enough to tag me so that I didn’t miss these two.
I say this a lot and I won’t apologize – this is addictive.
Upon visiting, you’re plunked in the middle of an example. In the dialogue box, top left, clear the map and start exploring. In the search box, you have the opportunity to enter either a country or a state and then drag/drop it anywhere on a world map to look at the relative sizes. So, to answer Alfred’s question about Alaska and Europe…
And I was off. How does Canada compare with Australia? Clear the map, select Canada and drag it to the southern hemisphere.
That was fun. There were a couple of observations in doing so.
We know that the world map we’re accustomed to seeing on classroom walls is flat and distorted to compensate for a rounded earth. As you drag big ol’ Canada near the equator, you see it shrink and then expand again as you move further south. Whether or not the level of resizing is accurate can’t be proven; you just have to accept that the resource does it correctly. Even if not, it’s a good visual of what should happen.
The other thing that’s of real interest is, once you’ve selected your state or country, mousing over the image generates a popup that provides the data about the land size selected. That can be very helpful.
Map fanatics will enjoy this. Formula 1 fans will really have to zoom in to pick up Monaco.
Not to stop there but another link was shared in our discussion.
This takes the option of comparing countries beyond the visible.
Visitors to the site are invited to compare one country to another. In my case, it was off to Denmark.
Salary is but one way to compare the two countries. Look for data like life span, environment, etc. It’s a great comparison and, of course, you’ll want to compare the two in size.
The mapping tool is interesting although not as flexible as The True Size. The worldwide etiquette is interesting, to say the least. I now know about tipping in Australia.
Thank you, Alfred, for opening the door to this exploration. I had a wonderful time exploring. The classroom applications are many and I could see the crafted educator using these tools in a discussion of world events.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.