Why do different map projections look so different? Why isn’t there a good way to flatten a globe?

Question

Inspired by [this post](https://www.instagram.com/p/B6QjaMAHAzm/?igshid=176ja0au37qak)

In: Other

Answer 1

You can’t flatten a 3 dimensional sphere to a 2 dimensional surface without losing something.

The main projection Americans are familiar with is Mercator, which has the benefit of having longitude and latitude in equal lengths, but distorts distances the closer to the poles.

There are many other projections because they each have their benefits and detriments, and some are better to use in certain situations than others.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_map_projections