Mercator and Peters

      Today in class we talked about two different types of maps. We talked about  the Peter's map and the Mercator map. The Mercator map was written by a German man to help sailors. The Mercator map is what we use most often and what most kids in America are taught in school. Even though Mercator is taught in most school, the Peters map is more accurate. The Peters map looks more distorted to us since were not used to seeing it, however it is more accurate. The Mercator map looks for normal to us since we're used to seeing it, but is is less accurate. The Mercator takes things that are further away for the equator and closer to the poles and stretches them out. This messes with social equality. We see things that are bigger and towards the top as more important than others. So, when the Mercator makes things bigger than they really are or smaller than they really are, it messes with the places social power or presence in our world. Also, an upside down map really doesn't mean anything. It doesn't make it Wong or even upside down. Its still a map of the world and all of it is correct. Some places such as Australia teach with an "upside down" map because that puts Australia at the top, making them seem more important. The ties back into the social equality factor of maps.