Word: gerardus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Cartographers have long known that the images on maps often do not reflect the actual shapes and relative sizes of continents and seas. In the widely used map projection drawn in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, Greenland is exaggerated 16 times and appears to be bigger than South America, even though it is only about the size of Mexico. The National Geographic's Van der Grinten projection, which has been used for the past 66 years, shows Alaska blown up to five times its real size, making it appear the rough equivalent of Brazil, which is actually...