| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| France | 635,064 km² | 1,187,570 km² | 1.9× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew France at about 1,187,570 km² km². The truth is 635,064 km² km² — a difference of 87%% that school atlases carried for centuries.