Question

On a Mercator projection map, Greenland looks larger than South America. However, it is actually much smaller. How could this affect a person's understanding of land areas?

Answer 1

The things on the map seem bigger as you move to the equator, that’s why Greenland looks as big as Africa but in reality it’s 6x smaller. That’s why people see Russia in the Mercada style map and are shocked to see how big it is when really it’s as big as the rest of eroupe.

Answer 2

The map is thereby conformal. As a side effect, the Mercator projection inflates the size of objects away from the equator.