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: ...

The Mercator world map, long a fixture in classrooms globally, makes the European Union appear almost as large as Africa. In reality, Africa is more than seven times bigger. It is a distortion that ...

Cartographers rely on the authority of maps to communicate locations, guide navigation at sea, and shape people’s perceptions of Earth. However, because all flat maps have compromises built into them, ...