Stereographic Map Projection
A stereographic projection maps points on a sphere onto a flat plane by drawing straight lines from a single point on the sphere through the surface to the plane.
The projection preserves angles and local shapes, but areas and distances become increasingly distorted farther from the centre. It is widely used in mathematics, astronomy and cartography.
Additional Information
The widely used Mercator projection keeps shapes accurate but badly distorts size near the poles — Greenland looks roughly as large as Africa, even though Africa is actually about 14 times bigger.
Equal-area projections fix the size problem but end up distorting shapes instead, since no flat map can perfectly preserve both at once.
Cartographers choose a projection based on purpose: navigation, area comparison, or straight-line distance each favor a different kind of map.