What different world maps get right - and what they get wrong

The United Nations adopted a new world map projection designed to more accurately represent Africa's land area relative to other continents. Different map projections distort either size, shape, distance, or direction depending on their mathematical approach. The Mercator projection, widely used in classrooms and online, enlarges landmasses near the poles while shrinking equatorial regions. Other projections like the Gall-Peters and Robinson each prioritize different geographic properties, resulting in trade-offs in accuracy for any given attribute.

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