Mercator Map facts

While investigating facts about Mercator Map Projection and Mercator Map Definition, I found out little known, but curios details like:

The title “atlas” for a collection of maps was not named for the Greek Titan condemned to support the sky, but rather in respect for King Atlas of Mauretania, considered by Gerardus Mercator to be the first great geographer

how did mercator make his map?

Google Maps is based on a cylindrical map of the earth called a mercator projection making mapping the poles almost impossible

What a mercator map distorts crossword?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what is wrong with the mercator map. Here are 18 of the best facts about Mercator Map Pope and Mercator Map Vs Reality I managed to collect.

what is a mercator map?

1. All flat maps of the earth need to use a mathematical projection. The most popular one is the "Mercator". The trade-off being that it deeply affects the relative size of the countries. Making countries 10x different in size look the same.

2. The US is barely a third the size of Africa, but we know it wrong because most of the maps are designed using the Mercator projection

3. Mercator (of map projection fame) believed a 33-mile-wide magnetic island sat at the magnetic North Pole inside a giant whirlpool to explain why compasses pointed north

4. A Mercator Map distorts the size of northern and southern landmasses, making Greenland appear the same size as Africa when in reality it's close to 1/14th its area.

5. The Mercator map projection used in schools was made for navigation and not representative to countries actual sizes. For example, Africa is actually 14x larger than Greenland although they are projected the same size.

6. Greenland is a MUCH smaller country than maps depict thanks to Mercator projections of our 3D earth in 2D

7. Our world-maps distorts the real size of continents due to Mercator projection. Russia is only 2x the size of USA, Africa is 14x times the size of Greenland and is bigger than entire North America. Madagascar is 2x the size of UK.

8. Mercator maps are essentially a compromise between accurate sizes and shapes of countries. This is because there really is no standard way to project a spherical object onto a flare surface like paper and be 100% accurate in shape, size, and distance.

9. A true fact on The West Wing that the traditional Mercator Projection of the World Map has fostered European Imperialist attitudes for centuries and created an ethnic bias against the Third World.

10. Mercator maps are essentially a compromise between accurate size and accurate shapes of countries. This is. excuse there really is no standard way to project a spherical object onto a flat surface without compromising size, shape, or distances.

Mercator Map data charts

For your convenience take a look at Mercator Map figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

Why are mercator maps distort?

You can easily fact check why did mercator make his map by examining the linked well-known sources.

Due to the "Mercator Projection" affect, the true size of land is misrepresented on traditional maps where Greenland is actually 3.5 times smaller than Australia and India is 2 times larger than Alaska

Mercator projection world maps are always cropped. They can continue on infinitely towards the north or south, increasing in distortion, making a snowflake on the south pole the same size as a continent - source

The most popular map of the world, Mercator Projection, distorts the size of countries closer to the poles, making them appear larger than they really are. - source

While Africa and Greenland appear to be the same size on a standard map, Africa is actually 14 times bigger than Greenland. Although the Mercator projection preserves local angular relationships, it greatly distorts sizes at the poles and is just one of many possible map projections.

The Mercator projection, one of the most common ways to create a global map, was invented in 1569. - source

When did meow mix come out?

The popular version of the world map we know is inaccurate. The "Mercator" projection was created in 1596 to help sailors navigate the world. The familiar map gives the right shapes of land masses, but at the cost of distorting their sizes in favor of the wealthy lands to the north