Projection Detection

      Map projections seem pretty benign and harmless at first glance, but that is because most people dont realize that behind every projection there is a human intention. A map projection appears very objective and straightforward, being derived from mathematical calculations, but nothing is that simple and unbiased when creating a representation of our real world. Just like any representation of the world we live in, such as film, photography, literature and arts, there is some political or cultural bias and influence. This same principle is true for the creation of map projections and the employment of map projections.
      No two map projections are the same and there is not a single map projection that represents Earth exactly as it appears. The reason so many map projections exist is because it is impossible to represent a 3-dimensional obbject onto a 2-dimensional surface. Some elements will become distorted in the projection process. Some projections such as the Mercator Projection are conformal and preserve the shape of the land masses. Other maps preserve the area of objects and some preserve the distances that exist between two points.
      Depending on the projection, a map can be used for several different purposes. With the Mercator projection for example, it was the first projection that if a navigator followed a compass bearing in a straight line he would reach the exact desired destination. The Mercator Projection is a relatively old projection and was incredibly useful during the Age of Discovery, but it can still be found in classrooms and textbooks to this day. The fact is that the Mercator Projection is so distorted in the high latitudes that the entire projection is rarely shown, most of Antarctica is cut off because it takes up most of the area on the map.
      For most of the last century the Mercator Projection was used for political reasons and to keep Americans fearful of the USSR, as if the threat of nuclear war wasn't stressful enough. The Mercator Projection has remained popular because most of the global powers that exist today are located in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere and the projection distorts the size of land masses to be much larger in higher latititudes and much smaller close to the equator. Due to this distortion, the USSR and the US appeared large and the entire continent of Africa appeared much smaller than its actual size, further perpetuating the the fact that global powers ingnore Africa politically and rather draw attention away from any issues going on in Africa. People relate size with power and influential political powers wouldn't want people to become confused by reality.