The cartographer Gerardus Mercator created the Mercator projection by mathematically projecting a vertically oriented cylinder tangent to the Equator. Navigators used this type of map because any straight line on a Mercator map is a line of constant direction. Mercator map projections shows true direction between places the best, but are not equal area or equidistant. This is the projection of choice from Google maps for this reason, despite how the south and north poles distort land size.