If you want an accurate view of the world, think twice before reaching for the Mercator projection. Its the most popular map of the world, but it’s also one of the most deceptive ones.
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Although its widely used in classrooms across the globe and even by Google, the sizes of many of the states and countries are a bit off-base.
For example, Greenland appears to be the same size as Africa when it’s barely the size of Algeria, and Alaska seems to be bigger than Brazil when it’s only one-fifth of the country.
So why the confusion? To fit everything on a flat map, the spherical earth has to be distorted. That’s what causes the misconstruction.
There are a few other projections that hit the mark a little better. Check out the Business Insider video below to learn about them.
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