3. 2,967,967.29 square miles Australia 3,837,083.25 square miles Europe 5,100,023.41 square miles Antarctica 6,879,954.36 square miles South America 9,365,293.96 square miles North America 11,608,161.4 square miles Africa 17,212,048.13 square miles Asia Size/Area Continent
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8. 2,967,967.29 square miles Australia 3,837,083.25 square miles Europe 5,100,023.41 square miles Antarctica 6,879,954.36 square miles South America 9,365,293.96 square miles North America 11,608,161.4 square miles Africa 17,212,048.13 square miles Asia Size/Area Continent
Mercator Map presented by the Flemish (Belgian) geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator , in 1569.
The Mercator projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the poles, where it becomes infinite. The Mercator projection exaggerates areas far from the equator.
The argument against the Mercator projection by the pro-Peters folks usually discusses its "advantage for colonial powers" by making Europe look a lot larger than it actually is on the globe. As far back as 1902, a cartographer warned, "People's ideas of geography are not founded on actual facts but on Mercator's map." WHEREAS, world maps have a powerful and lasting effect on peoples' impressions of the shapes and sizes of lands and seas, their arrangement, and the nature of the coordinate system, and