Information design

Member lesson

Maps, projections and what each one distorts

Lesson 6 of 12 in Information design.

Lesson

There is no undistorted map, because a sphere cannot be flattened without stretching something. Every projection chooses what to preserve, and the choice is an argument: Mercator keeps angles correct for navigation and makes Greenland look the size of Africa.

An ink drawing of a globe, an orange peel pressed flat into split segments and a paper world map on a kitchen table, with a child's hands pressing the peel.
A flattened orange peel showing why every flat map distorts.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    Which of these words means this? “A way of flattening a globe. Every one distorts something; none is neutral.”

    • Zebra striping
    • Log scale
    • Cherry-picking
    • Projection
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Preserves angles, badly exaggerates area away from the equator.”

    • Line chart
    • Dashboard
    • Projection
    • Mercator
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Preserves relative size, distorts shape. Mollweide, Equal Earth and others.”

    • Scatter plot
    • Glanceable
    • Mercator
    • Equal area

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