| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Faroe Islands | 1,036 km² | 4,714 km² | 4.6× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Faroe Islands at about 4,714 km² km². The truth is 1,036 km² km² — a difference of 355%% that school atlases carried for centuries.