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We all know that the Earth is round, not flat. But our maps are flat.

If you can remove all the peel from an orange in one go (an impressive task in itself), try to lay it out flat like a piece of paper. You’re likely to have problems as it just wants to bend. That’s the exact challenge facing map makers. How do you draw something like a sphere on a rectangle?

They have to compromise.

Map makers use map projections to transform the Earth onto a flat surface. One of the most popular world map projections is known as the Mercator Projection. You’ll have seen it loads of times and likely thought it looked perfectly normal. It was originally invented by Gerhardus Mercator in 1569 to allow sailors to plot a straight course between ports.

So just how misleading can this map be? Take our quiz to find out.