Why Mercator Maps Distort Canada and Alaska's Size

The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map that preserves shapes and angles (good for navigation) but distorts area, especially far from the equator. Scale increases with latitude, so high-latitude regions (Canada, Alaska, Greenland) appear vastly larger than equatorial ones. Hence Canada+Alaska look bigger than the US+Mexico, though they are smaller in reality. Greenland appears similar to Africa, but Africa is ~14× larger. Equal-area projections (e.g., Peters) correct size but distort shapes.