Mercator vs Peter's Projection Maps

Today in class we were given time to write the differences between the Mercator and Peter's Projection maps. On the Mercator map, Greenland and Africa appear to be the same size, but Peter's Projection map shows us that Africa is actually 14 times larger than Greenland. On the Mercator map, Europe is larger than South America, but South America is 6.9 million square miles and Europe is  3.8 million square miles, and Peter's Projection map accurately shows us that. Mexico is 0.1 million square miles bigger than Alaska, but Alaska is drawn 3 times larger than Mexico on the Mercator map. In the Mercator map, Germany looks like it's in the middle, but it's actually in the northernmost quarter of the earth on Peter's Projection map. The Mercator was made in 1569 and the Peter's projection map was made in 1855. On the Peter's Projection Map, the east-west lines are parallel and intersect north-south axes at right angles.

Peter's Projection Map

Mercator Map

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