Every Map Is Wrong
Written by Studio AM.
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Every flat map of the world is wrong, and it has to be. A sphere cannot be pressed onto a sheet of paper without stretching or tearing something. The only real question is which error the mapmaker chooses to accept.
The Mercator world map, introduced in 1569, represents a constant compass bearing as a straight line. This helps a navigator plot a course, although that course is usually not the shortest route. The price is area. Land far from the equator is inflated, so Greenland swells until it looks as large as Africa, though Africa is about fourteen times bigger.
Other projections keep area true and bend the shapes instead. None of them is neutral, because none of them can be. A map is an argument about what matters most: shape, or size, or direction.
This is worth remembering outside geography. Any summary of a complicated thing is a projection. It is not enough to ask whether it is accurate. Ask what it had to distort in order to be useful.
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Questions
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Question 1 of 4
What is the essay's central claim?
The answer is B: Every flat map must distort something, so the real question is which error it accepts.
The first paragraph sets this up and the third repeats it: no projection is neutral, so a map is a choice about what matters.
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Question 2 of 4
What does a straight line on a Mercator map represent?
The answer is C: A course with a constant compass bearing
The passage describes constant-bearing courses as straight lines and warns that they are usually not the shortest routes.
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Question 3 of 4
What does the writer want a reader to do with any short summary?
The answer is A: Ask what it had to distort in order to be useful.
The last paragraph makes the transfer: accuracy is not enough; ask what was distorted to make it useful.
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Question 4 of 4
What does “neutral” mean when describing a map projection?
The answer is D: free of choice, favoring nothing
The next sentence explains: a map is an argument about what matters, so every projection takes a side.
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