No map shows the world as it truly is.

Maps are flat while the surface of the earth is curved. To make maps flat, mapmakers have to give up other things. A map that shows the shapes of countries as they are on the earth can’t show sizes of countries as they are on the earth. A map that shows true areas can’t show true shapes.

Map projections are attempts to portray the surface of the earth or a portion of the earth on a flat surface. Some distortions of conformality, distance, direction, scale, and area always result from this process. Some projections minimize distortions in some of these properties at the expense of maximizing errors in others. Some projection are attempts to only moderately distort all of these properties.

While some cartographers have been struggling to show the shape of the world, others have shown nontraditional views of the position of the world -- the Pacific Ocean in the center, for example, or the Arctic Ocean at the bottom. And what if we could see the world in terms of population rather than area?

Here are a few popular views of the world.