The reason why certain countries looks bigger or smaller than others is because of something called the Mercator Projection. Putting a 3D planet on a two-dimensional map was something of a challenge for early cartographers and so a Flemish geographer and cartographer named Gerardus Mercator came up with a solution. In 1569 he designed a map that could be accurately used for navigation purposes, but the downside was that his system distorted the size of objects depending on their position relative to the equator. Because of this, landmasses like Antarctica and Greenland appeared much larger than they actually are.

To show how incorrect our understanding of country sizes is, a website called thetruesize.com lets you move landmasses into different locations. Bored Panda has played a bit on this site, and this is what we found.

#1 US Moved Down Next To Australia Looks Unbelievably Small

#2 Russia On The Equator Is Not A Giant Bear Anymore

#3 If Romania Was An Island In The Arctic Ocean

#4 Australia Is Way Bigger Than You May Think - It Covers Almost The Whole Of Europe

#5 If Brazil Was In Asia It Would Be Massive

#6 Indonesia Would Spread Almost Across The Whole Of Russia

#7 Greenland Is Not So Big When Compared To USA And Brazil

#8 China Placed On Top Of Russia

#9 When You Move Canada To South America

#10 California Moved Onto The UK Shows They're Quite Similar In Size

#11 Australia Moved Onto North America Becomes REALLY Big

#15 Canada Moved Down Onto The US Reveals That Both Countries Are Pretty Much The Same