How many Japans fit in Brazil?
21 Japans fit in Brazil.
- Really
- 21
- As Mercator draws it
- 14
Mercator makes it look like only 14, fewer than the 21 that really fit. This time the container is the one nearer the equator, and so the one inflated less.
Why the two differ
Mercator draws Japan 1.61 times its true area and Brazil 1.06 times. The count is the ratio of the two, so what moves it is not the inflation itself but the ratio between the two inflations. Whichever sits closer to a pole is blown up more.
On an equal-area projection
Under Equal Earth or Gall-Peters the two figures are identical - for every pair on this site. An equal-area projection draws in proportion to true area, so the count you can see is the count there is. That is a definition, not a coincidence.