Why does the Mercator projection exaggerate the size of Antarctica?

The Mercator projection exaggerates the size of Antarctica because of how it represents a spherical Earth on a flat surface. As a cylindrical projection, it depicts meridians as equally spaced vertical lines, while parallels of latitude are spaced increasingly farther apart as they move away from the Equator.12

This mathematical design ensures that straight lines on the map represent constant true bearings, making it an invaluable tool for navigation. However, because the distance between meridians remains constant on the chart while it actually decreases toward the poles on Earth, the scale becomes increasingly distorted at higher latitudes. Consequently, landmasses near the poles, such as Antarctica, appear disproportionately large—often depicted as being as vast as all other continents combined, despite being smaller than Russia.1234