Question

The Mercator map is historically one of the world's most popular map projections. Describe this projection. Why was it created, and what kinds of distortion can you see

Answer 1

Sample Response

The Mercator map was created in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator. The projection’s creator wanted to create a map that would be helpful in navigating the world’s seas. The map is set up on a useful grid. However, the map is clearly distorted! At the north and south ends of the map, Antarctica and Greenland are just two examples of landforms that appear far bigger than they should. Areas and distances are not portrayed accurately on this map.

Step-by-step explanation:

Use which ever one you want, they are both correct.

Have a great day.

Answer 2

Because a round object is being mapped flat there needs to be some adjustment for this which the Mercator map adjusts for. In the case of this type of projection/map, as the distance from the equator increase to the north or south, the same scale (or change) accompanies an east west distance increase. Because of this consistent change, objects farther from the equator seem to be larger than those that are close to the equator. An example of this would be Greenland or Antarctica when looking at a map. The landmasses of these two areas seem much larger because the scale has evenly increased since they are the farthest from the equator.