Summary:
- A projection is a way to represent Earth’s curved surface on flat paper.
- The Mercator projection is best within 15° north or south of the Equator.
- The shapes and sizes of continents become more stretched out near the poles.
- Conic map projections use a cone shape to better represent regions near the polar regions.
- A gnomonic projection represents the true sizes and shapes of land areas over a small area on Earth.
- The Mollweide projection distorts the size of polar regions much less.