![]() Why this map projection is so famous is that itwas very useful for nautical navigation in the past (and therefore made that projection very widely used).ĭownside however is that this projection is enormously incorrect in how it shows the sizes of large landmasses. So, you will most likely already know the map on the right. That is probably the main reason why for example Google Maps uses a variation on Mercator. This will help you to recognize them outside or for local navigation (but only in that small map section). The geographical features (shapes, angles) are well represented. This means if you take a small part of the map Also, at every point, the horizontal and vertical scale is the same. They will meet at the same angle on Earth. if two roads meet at a certain angle on the surface of the map, As a consiquence Mercator maps are conformal or angle-preserving maps, i.e. For example ten degrees west of south will be ten degrees counterclockwise from the way facing to towards the Purpose to correctly preserve compass bearings. Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer introduced the Mercator projection way back in 1569. ![]() Maybe click around the globe on mapclickerĪnd find the obscure one you where looking for. ![]() Some are very famous, some you will probably never have heard from. Each was developed to minimize theĭisortion for that specific use. Because every problem has it's own solution, there are numerous amounts of projections. Any 2D projection of the world will always distort the reality in some smaller or Understand, there is not one answer to this problem. You have to deal with the practival use of maps (navigation, geograpgical shapes,ĭistance between objects, etc) as well as very complicated mathematical problems about how to shape the world. (For example a large piece of paper or the screen you are currently watching -)) And why? Well in order to get a useable map.Īnd that last part, well that is the hard part. Map projection is a way to represent the globe which is an inperfect sphere, onto a flat survace. But what is a mercator and what is projection? Well, lets start about what a projection actually is.
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