Clip from an article: "Created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569,
the Mercator projection preserves direction, instead of size, making it useful for navigation."
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I love geography, so when I see a chart or map, I am drawn to it.
Here are a few illustrations to show the relative size of Africa to other countries and to Greenland. These illustrations are based on actual surface area comparisons.
Notice that Africa is about twice as large as the former Soviet Union!
Notice that the Continental USA and Europe and China AND India could ALL fit inside of Africa! That is HUGE!
Notice that Greenland is actually MUCH smaller than Africa, only about 1/14th the size of Africa, now go look at a typical Mercator map where Greenland appears about the same size as Africa, because of Mercator distortion. The second illustration shows a blue Greenland overlaid on top of a pink Africa, in both Mercator and actual size.
I am also including one projection that says it shows the true size of the land, so it may look a bit distorted or odd, as our minds are accustomed to the Mercator projection maps.