In 1569 he designed a map that could be accurately used for navigation purposes, but the downside was that his system distorted the size of objects depending on their position relative to the equator. Because of this, landmasses like Antarctica and Greenland appeared much larger than they actually are.

Mercator projection

Mercator map

Types of Map Projections

• Cylindrical Map Projections. Cylindrical map projections are one way of portraying the Earth.
• Conic Map Projections. Secondly, conic map projections include the equidistant conic projection, the Lambert conformal conic, and Albers conic.
• Azimuthal Map Projection.

The Gnomonic projection is geometrically projected onto a plane, and the point of projection is at the centerofthe earth. It is impossible to show a full hemisphere with one Gnomonic map.

Disadvantages: Mercator projection distorts the size of objects as the latitude increases from the Equator to the poles, where the scale becomes infinite. So, for example, Greenland and Antarctica appear much larger relative to land masses near the equator than they actually are.

Robinson projections are not equivalent; they do suffer from compression. However, the amount of area distortion is generally low within about 45° of the equator. Conformality: The Robinson projection is not conformal; shapes are distorted more than they would be in a truly conformal projection.

Advantage: The Robinson map projection shows most distances, sizes and shapes accurately. Disadvantage: The Robinson map does have some distortion around the poles and edges.

The advantage of this projection is each of the continents are the correct size and in proportion to one another. The disadvantage is distance and direction are not accurate. Likewise, what does an interrupted map do?

Paul Goode merged the Mollweide (Homolographic) projection and the Sinusoidal projection to create Goode’s Homolosine Interrupted. The advantage of this projection is each of the continents are the correct size and in proportion to one another. The disadvantage is distance and direction are not accurate.

Google Maps mainly uses the Mercator projection because it allows to preserve the angles. At first, Google Maps did not use this projection, and as a consequence in cities at high latitudes, right angles could not be maintained on roads and the like.

Maps, however, in themselves have a fundamental flaw: maps are almost always incomplete representations of the earth since the earth is a sphere and maps are usually two-dimensional flat surfaces. …

The Dymaxion map or Fuller map is a projection of a world map onto the surface of an icosahedron, which can be unfolded and flattened to two dimensions. The flat map is heavily interrupted in order to preserve shapes and sizes. The projection was invented by Buckminster Fuller.

On projections such as the Mercator map, the further north of south of the equator one goes, the more extreme the distortion becomes.