| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
| Estonia | 45,442 km² | 168,135 km² | 3.7× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Estonia at about 168,135 km² km². The truth is 45,442 km² km² — a difference of 270%% that school atlases carried for centuries.