| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Ireland | 68,700 km² | 190,986 km² | 2.8× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Ireland at about 190,986 km² km². The truth is 68,700 km² km² — a difference of 178%% that school atlases carried for centuries.