00:00 Most people's mental map of the world is incorrect, as places are often not where they think they are in relation to other places.

01:37 People's mental maps of the world are often incorrect because they tend to think of places in relation to each other in only one direction and because maps themselves are flawed.

03:06 Maps are flawed because it is impossible to accurately project a sphere onto a flat surface, resulting in distorted sizes, shapes, and directions, such as the exaggerated size of Greenland on the Mercator projection and the misconception that South America is directly below North America.

04:34 The Panama Canal runs northwest to southeast, Europe is further north than North America, and various cities in North America are at similar latitudes to cities in Europe.

05:57 Europe is warmer than similar latitude cities in North America because it has a longer coastline and more points that are closer to the sea, while Africa is larger than China, the United States with Alaska, Western Europe, India, and Argentina combined and two-thirds of Africa actually lies north of the equator, and Australia is far away from almost everywhere else with the Southern Ocean, Antarctica, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean surrounding it.

07:24 Australia is geographically isolated and much larger than people realize, with long flight times between cities and a small population compared to its size.

08:44 Using Google Earth, a digital globe, can help improve your mental map of the world by providing a spherical view rather than a two-dimensional map.