To create the perfectly proportioned map, Hajime Narukawa divided the spherical globe into 96 triangles that are flattened and transferred to a tetrahedron. In 1569, Mercator introduced his map of the world using a method called Mercator projection. "The world map can be tiled in any directions without visible seams." "From this map-tiling, a new world map with triangular, rectangular or parallelogram's outline can be framed out with various regions at its center." For instance, in the Mercator projection, North America looks at least as big, if not slightly larger, than Africa.

Source: New Zealand Herald November 03, 2016 03:21 UTC