Common projections shrink the size of Africa, but experts have long debated whether creating a precise map is possible.

Languages: English, Spanish Think about a map of the world ... the projection distorts the size of objects as the latitude increases from the equator to the poles, where the scale becomes infinite.

Think ‘world ... of projection can be made to give uniform scale along parallels, or to give equal areas albeit with exaggerated shape distortions.” According to the Institute, the map ...

This phenomenon can be attributed to the Mercator projection, a map most commonly seen hanging in classrooms and in text books which was created in 1596 to help sailors navigate the world.

the Gall-Peters projection. About 600 school classrooms in Boston, Massachusetts, will receive a large laminated map that has come to symbolise efforts to correct the Western world’s distorted ...

Whenever you glance at a flat world map, you should take what you see with a grain of salt. One in particular, known as the Mercator projection, distorts the actual sizes of landmasses like Alaska and ...

In fact, it's 14 times smaller than Africa, something that is apparent when you look at its actual size to scale ... he drew a world map, what's become known as the Mercator projection.

The standard classroom maps we all learned geography from are based on the Mercator projection, a 16th century rendering ... equation to quantify the degree of distortion that a world map experienced.

Some users expressed surprise or confusion that the true scale of countries, as illustrated by most world ... a projection of our planet, which is a round 3D globe, onto a flat 2D map, calculated ...

The world map you are probably familiar with is called the Mercator projection (below), which was developed all the way back in 1569 and greatly distorts the relative areas of land masses.