| True area | On the old Mercator map | Distortion vs truth |
|---|
| Sri Lanka | 66,046 km² | 67,367 km² | 1× |
| Greenland | 2,154,754 km² | 25,447,645 km² | 11.8× |
| Africa | 30,370,000 km² | — | 1× |
Old maps drew Sri Lanka at about 67,367 km² km². The truth is 66,046 km² km² — a difference of 2%% that school atlases carried for centuries.