| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
| South Sudan | 623,998 km² | 636,478 km² | 1× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew South Sudan at about 636,478 km² km². The truth is 623,998 km² km² — a difference of 2%% that school atlases carried for centuries.