# Mercator map projection distortion animated

Anybody who deals with maps and geospatial data knows that different projections distort the world map in different ways. Still it's instructive to see it in an good visualisation.

Animated maps of Mercator projection distortion of country areas in two maps by Neil Kaye.

Static version:
https://mobile.twitter.com/neilrkaye/status/1050722881657864192

Animated version:
https://mobile.twitter.com/neilrkaye/status/1050740679008296967

Mercator projection was designed to preserve angles of straight lines on a map. As a side-effect, it inflates sizes of objects farther away from the equator on the map: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection