Every map starts with the same lie: The earth is flat. The globe isn’t a portable, affordable, or even satisfying way to look at the world, so these exaggerations are necessary. However, mapmakers ...

MAPS of the world have the impossible task of portraying the Earth—a three-dimensional shape—on a flat sheet of paper. Mapmakers have to choose a projection of the globe that approximates the basic ...

Because the Earth is roughly spherical, every flat map distorts our planet one way or another. The most popular version is the Mercator projection, created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in ...

Students attending Boston public schools will get a more accurate depiction of the world after the school district rolled out a new standard map of the world that show North America and Europe much ...

Think about a map of the world. The image you're picturing will most likely resemble the Mercator projection—a 2D representation of the globe created in the 1500s which most maps you commonly come ...

For centuries, the Mercator projection has been one of the most recognizable representations of the world. Developed in 1569 during the height of maritime exploration, it was engineered with a ...

In classrooms, offices, and libraries across the United States, one world map appears again and again: the Mercator projection. Its familiarity makes it feel authoritative, even though it was never ...

The African Union has joined a growing campaign to challenge centuries of cartographic distortion that has long diminished Africa’s true scale on world maps. The bloc of 55 nations recently endorsed ...

The African Union is championing a drive to replace the 16th-century Mercator world map, arguing its widespread use by governments and international bodies inaccurately depicts Africa's true scale.

One of the best known and commonly used world maps, the Mercator Projection, depicts Greenland and Africa as being roughly the same size. In reality, Africa is 14 times larger. This clever animation ...

President Trump is again floating the idea of annexing Greenland, the semiautonomous Arctic island that is a territory of Denmark. Greenland's location between North America and Russia gives it ...