| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Kuwait | 17,330 km² | 22,876 km² | 1.3× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Kuwait at about 22,876 km² km². The truth is 17,330 km² km² — a difference of 32%% that school atlases carried for centuries.