Random Mode Keyboard shortcut: Command/Ctrl + Shift + R
thumbnail

Countries Losing the Most Area to the Mercator Projection

Which countries lose the greatest amount of total area on a Mercator projection map of the world?
Using a latitude cutoff of 85.0511°
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Last updated: September 13, 2023
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedSeptember 13, 2023
Times taken12,225
Average score80.0%
Rating4.89
4:00
Enter answer here
0
 / 20 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
km²
%
Country
5.65 m
66.4
Brazil
4.89 m
50.8
China
4.62 m
60.1
Australia
2.63 m
27.6
United States
1.97 m
62.2
India
1.60 m
68.0
D. R. Congo
1.43 m
60.0
Algeria
km²
%
Country
1.41 m
65.6
Saudi Arabia
1.41 m
50.7
Argentina
1.31 m
68.4
Indonesia
1.24 m
65.8
Sudan
1.21 m
61.6
Mexico
1.10 m
62.8
Libya
0.92 m
55.6
Iran
km²
%
Country
0.86 m
66.9
Peru
0.85 m
67.2
Niger
0.85 m
66.0
Chad
0.83 m
66.5
Angola
0.80 m
64.5
Mali
0.78 m
68.0
Colombia
+38
Level ∞
Sep 14, 2023
The only countries which gain area are the five Nordic countries, plus Estonia, Latvia, Russia, and Canada.

The Mercator projection is a Greelandian conspiracy!

+13
Level 66
Sep 14, 2023
Took me a while to get the United States. I thought for sure Alaska would more than compensate.
+20
Level 80
Sep 14, 2023
Woah! Anybody else get confetti at the end? That’s new.
+6
Level 89
Sep 14, 2023
I did! That's fun!
+11
Level 76
Sep 14, 2023
looks like a new update for perfect scores! Lovely change :D
+9
Level 84
Sep 14, 2023
Interesting. Didn’t realise so few countries gained land. Guess the well known Northern bias is mostly a case of to what degree the remaining countries lose land.

Wonder which country is the closest to breaking even. And how the list works out ordered by percentage.

+6
Level ∞
Sep 14, 2023
It's tough to say exactly since my area-calculating script might be off for very small countries.
+3
Level 80
Sep 14, 2023
Surely it's all relative - so you could calculate it only in terms of countries gaining land if you wanted to, or only in terms of countries losing land, or anywhere on the scale in between
+2
Level 83
Sep 15, 2023
I guess the natural way to calculate it is to scale so that the total area of the projection matches the total area of the globe that it covers. (That's why you need a cutoff, so that the former is finite.)
+5
Level 88
Sep 15, 2023
The whole northern bias argument is essentially baseless drivel by people who don't understand maps, and who as a result propose terrible alternatives, while there are very nice non-rectangular accurate projections. Mercator is great for navigation, hence why versions of it are still used today. Simple as that. Sorry, personal pet peeve.
+6
Level ∞
Sep 15, 2023
I don't think overtired meant "bias" in that way.
+3
Level 60
Sep 14, 2023
Yet another great quiz from the Quizmaster
+1
Level 67
Sep 19, 2023
18/20 and I still have no idea what the Mercator Projection is
+10
Level 65
Sep 19, 2023
Level 66 and not knowing about map projections? :skull:
+2
Level 71
Sep 26, 2023
I thought the US gains due to Alaska being stretched for exaclty this reason?
+2
Level 53
Dec 8, 2023
every country gains land from the mercator projection wtf is this quiz??
+1
Level 70
Dec 21, 2023
I didn't understand that either.
+2
Level 57
Dec 8, 2023
I used the age old strategy of just guessing as many countries as possible, and it almost worked as I missed only one.
+1
Level 52
Dec 10, 2023
so guess large countries with a somewhat close proximity to the equator.

Also the thumbnail pic for the quiz? I don't get it.

+1
Level 63
Dec 10, 2023
See Universewalker's comment
+1
Level 56
Dec 11, 2023
The book 'Longitude' is an excellent read on sea-going navigation and mapping. As a boater in the San Juan Islands, Sea of Cortez and the Inside Passage charts are essential despite the distortion of land mass. Here is an interesting visual of the mercator scale of distortion.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mercator-map-true-size-of-countries/

+1
Level 78
Dec 11, 2023
I went for countries close to the equator.
+1
Level 38
Dec 11, 2023
I had no idea what a Mercator projection was, I thought it meant which countries were projected to lose the most land in the future, got 17.
+1
Level 56
Dec 11, 2023
The quiz felt a little backward to me. Mercator maps try to normalize the land masses to determine east/west distance from Greenwich. Meaning the northern/southern land masses get stretched, map-wise out to maintain longitude perspective with the equator. Those that lose mass are nearer the equator. It's all kind of weird, but somewhat essential to know for seagoing navigation when GPS fails and all you have are paper charts and a pencil. :=)