Why is Alaska so big in Google Maps?

Question

Update:

Alaska's area: 663,000 square miles

Canada's area: 3.8 million square miles

Why does alaska look like half the size of canada on google maps?

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

In part because it IS big, and in part because the maps there, when looking at the world map, appears to be a Mercator-type projection, which makes the areas toward the poles look bigger than they really are.

Answer 2

Google Maps Alaska

Source(s): https://shrink.im/a8435

Answer 3

There's always a problem when you try to map a curved surface onto a flat map, something must be distorted. Google maps may use a traditional Mercator projection which distorts things more the further they are from the equator and so it makes Alaska look the same size as Brazil when, in reality, it is five times smaller.

Edit: Alaska is approx. one fifth the area of the lower 48, not one half as someone thought

Answer 4

Alaska is so big on google maps to to its rather large size. Alaska is approximately half the size of the United States. Google wants to show as much detail to Alaska as possible without taking up to much space.

Answer 5

in reality it only has about the same landmass as mexico. If you look up "peters map" it will show you the realistic sizes of the continents.

Answer 6

Alaska is one fifth as large as the entire rest of the USA so it takes up a lot of space.

Answer 7

Alaska is big - it's about the size of Western Europe... France, UK, Germany combined

Answer 8

cause it IS big

most maps just distort it so it looks smaller

Answer 9

It is big. Bigger than Texas.