I grew up in a house full of maps. My parents were pilots, and in the days before, GPS and computers that stored mapping information and paper maps were used for aerial navigation. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration requires pilots to have the necessary maps on board their airplanes. A Flight Safety Specialist could approach an aircraft on the ground and ask to be shown the maps, which were inspected to ensure they covered the most recent trip's area and dates. Maps were updated regularly, and new versions superseded the old ones. Updating included obstacles like towers and other structures that changed with development and new construction. It also included the addition of navigational aids used by pilots.

The program intended for the dated maps to be discarded. However, my parents often kept dated maps for planning and instructing new pilots. They also allowed us to use the maps for play and encouraged us to learn to read maps. Several maps were transformed into treasure maps, although we never discovered any significant treasure apart from planned treasure hunts created by aunts and sisters.

As an adult, I have continued to enjoy maps. Although I have a GPS unit that I transfer between our car and our pickup, and I have a mapping program on my phone, I still enjoy looking at paper maps. My wife also enjoys maps. On several occasions, maps have been gifts that we exchanged. This past Christmas a road and recreation atlas of British Columbia was one of the gifts. It contains 176 pages of detailed maps of roads, trails, and waterways, with the topography illustrated in colors. I’ve already enjoyed studying the maps and daydreaming about possible camping trips and other adventures in the province to our north. This is the second such atlas we have owned. We had a similar atlas in 2006 when we spent several weeks exploring Alberta and British Columbia as part of a sabbatical. However, the provinces are large, and there is much that we have not seen. Beyond British Columbia lie the Yukon and Northwest Territories, which are also inviting to us.

However, all paper maps have an inherent problem. They are printed on flat paper, but our planet is not flat. Cartographers have known about this problem since ancient times. The Babylonians drew maps in disc-shaped forms to address this problem. In the second century, Ptolemy wrote an eight-volume guide to geography that showed a spherical earth. Maps from the Middle Ages have been preserved, showing Jerusalem as the center of the sphere and only three continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa.

More accurate charts were required as various sea navigation techniques were developed and refined. Given the limited experience and understanding of the scale of the earth, early charts were full of inaccuracies. Famously, Christopher Columbus landed on San Salvador Island, also known as Waiting Island, in the Bahamas, believing he was off India's coast. He was correct in thinking that the globe could be circumnavigated, a revolutionary idea at the time, but he was incorrect in his assumptions about the planet's size.

Around fifty years after Columbus’ voyages, Gerardus Mercator created maps using a mathematical projection. Mercator made equally spaced parallel vertical lines for the meridians using the grid of meridians and parallels. The parallels of latitude were horizontal straight lines spaced farther and farther apart as their distance from the Equator increased. Imagine depicting the sphere of the earth on a cylinder and then flattening the tube. Mercator projection maps are the most common maps used in printing. Remember any flat map of the planet that you have seen. Chances are it is a variation of a Mercator projection.

The problem with Mercator projections is that the farther from the equator you are, the greater the distances shown on the map. Distances near the poles are larger than distances at the equator. As a result, our atlas of British Columbia makes distances seem more significant the farther north you go in the book. I must keep reminding myself not to rely entirely on visual images when imagining travel.

The current President of the United States is not exactly an expert in maps, as was the case during his first term when he used a Sharpie pen to draw the area where he expected a hurricane to travel. His advisors should at least explain Mercator's projection to him. It could help him revise his ambitions. Specifically, Greenland isn’t as big as he thinks it is. While it looks as big as Africa on a Mercator map, Greenland is roughly the size of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Greenland has essential mineral resources beneath its surface, including critical minerals used in green energy technologies and areas where fossil fuel reserves may lie. However, finding, extracting, and transporting minerals and fuels from Greenland is difficult.

In 1946, US Secretary of State James Byrnes offered to buy the island from Denmark for $100 million. The offer was rejected. Adjusting for inflation, a similar offer would be about $1.5 billion. Although no price has been discussed, Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen has already described the president’s plan to purchase Greenland as “absurd.”

Rather than dreaming about controlling whatever resources lie beneath the ice and rocks of Greenland, I propose that the president be given various maps with different projections. A Cassini Projection map shows Greenland much smaller than a Mercator map. A Central cylindrical projection shows Greenland as long and skinny. A Goode map shows wedges cut out of the flat area to more accurately depict the size of territories near the poles. He might enjoy drawing with Sharpie pens on different maps as he tries to figure out what he is talking about when he talks about Greenland.

And if that doesn’t distract him from ordering acts of violence, perhaps one of his advisors could distract him by explaining plural tantrums. In common usage, pants, pliers, glasses, scissors, tweezers, and other nouns appear only in the plural form, even when discussing only one item. Using plural tantrums to refer to his possessions might make him believe he is twice as rich, which would likely please him.