Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Mercator map, created ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. World maps distort size and shape by design. Learn why projections matter and how they shape global understanding. (CREDIT: ...

African advocacy groups launched a campaign to replace the Mercator map with the Equal Earth projection. The African Union endorsed the effort, saying the distorted map minimizes Africa’s global ...

The African Union has backed a campaign to end the use by governments and international organizations of the 16th-century Mercator map of the world in favor of one that more accurately displays Africa ...

The Mercator map, first created in the 16th century, has long been the standard map used for navigation and education, but it stretches land masses farther from the equator. For example, Greenland ...

"On classroom walls from Lagos to London", the standard map of the world depicts an "inflated Britain at the centre" and a dramatically "shrunken Africa", said The Times. But this could soon change.

For example, Canada is grossly enlarged in the Mercator projection, while Greenland appears to be many times larger than it truly is. Lastly, Antarctica is the largest area shown on the Mercator ...