| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Germany | 356,163 km² | 901,092 km² | 2.5× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Germany at about 901,092 km² km². The truth is 356,163 km² km² — a difference of 153%% that school atlases carried for centuries.