Final answer:
The statement is true; planar map projections are accurate at the point of tangency but distortion increases as you move away from this point. Mercator projections, on the other hand, maintain angles but distort area, especially at high latitudes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that planar map projections are accurate at the point where the map touches the globe but distortion increases farther away the map is from the globe is True. Planar, or azimuthal, projections can only maintain accuracy at the center point of tangency; as one moves away from this point, distortion in shape, area, distance, and direction all begin to increase. This is contrasted with the Mercator projection, which is a cylindrical map projection where the distortion increases with latitude; it maintains accurate angle representations (conformality) but distorts area, making high-latitude regions appear much larger than they are in reality. For example, the Mercator projection exaggerates the size of Greenland and Antarctica.
An example of this distortion is evident when comparing the appearance of countries on a Mercator projection map to their actual sizes. For instance, the United States may appear almost as wide as Africa on a Mercator map, but Africa is in fact significantly larger. This can be misleading without proper context or understanding of the projection's properties. Tools like 'The True Size' provide a valuable resource for visualizing and comparing the real sizes of countries and continents without the distortion introduced by map projections.