Language & WorldMental model

Greenland is 14 times too big on your map.

The Mercator projection from 1569 preserves angles so sailors could draw courses as straight lines. The price: areas balloon toward the poles. Greenland (2.2 million km²) looks as big as Africa (30 million km²), even though Africa is roughly 14 times larger. Google Maps still uses a Mercator variant today.

Useful: To compare areas, use a globe or an equal-area projection instead.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

GeografieKartenProjektion

Difficulty:

Question on this card

What does the Mercator projection preserve?

Areas
Angles
Distances
None of these

Show the answer

Correct: Angles

Mercator is conformal: angles are true, areas near the poles are heavily inflated.

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