Mercator vs Peters. The battle of projections

There was some big news in the map world last week as schools in Boston began to replace Mercator projection maps for the more proportionally accurate Peters projection (read the full article here).

World on Mercator’s Projection by James Wyld c.1861

Representing something spherical as flat and rectangular is impossible without allowing some distortions and although the Mercator is the most popular projection (even Google Maps uses it), it is far from accurate. The globe is stretched so the poles are greatly elongated and areas closer to the equator are condensed. Africa is about 14 times larger than Greenland, but on a Mercator projection map they are presented as a similar size.

Peters Projection Political World Wall Map £13.99

German historian Arno Peters presented his projection to the cartographic community in 1973. Although cartographers were familiar with his concept (James Gall created a similar equal area projection in the 19th century), his timing was in tune with current affairs highlighting injustices in Africa and South America and it has since become a well known projection.

Our Peters projection map includes drawings and texts explaining how and why it is a more accurate representation than others.

For a wonderful explanation of map projections, watch this video:

Recommended Reading:

A History of the World in Twelve Maps by Jerry Brotton £10.99

And here is a list of different map projections in case you haven’t already decided which one is your favourite.

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