The Mercator projection
Built so a compass bearing is a straight line, which is why sailors wanted it, and which costs area: Greenland looks the size of Africa and is fourteen times smaller. Every projection distorts something; this one hangs in classrooms.
Preview from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, shown from their site.
By
Gerardus Mercator · 1569
Where
History & power · Cartography
Form
Static image · to inform
Visual
Space, Area
Original