| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Brazil | 8,499,400 km² | 8,839,376 km² | 1× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Brazil at about 8,839,376 km² km². The truth is 8,499,400 km² km² — a difference of 4%% that school atlases carried for centuries.