Final answer:
Winked triple, Goode equal area, and Mercator are examples of map projections. Mercator projections are used for navigation but distort landmasses and distances at increased latitudes.
Step-by-step explanation:
Winked triple, Goode equal area, and Mercator are all examples of map projections. In 1569, a Belgium mapmaker, Gerardus Mercator, developed a map projection that displays a grid overlay of horizontal and vertical lines representing longitude and latitudes on a flat surface. While Mercator projections are good for navigation purposes, because they maintain constant compass directions, they distort the size of continents and distances as latitude increases. This projection makes landmasses like Greenland and Antarctica appear much larger than they are relative to equatorial regions.
To give a better understanding of the distortion, one might consider the Mercator projection in comparison to actual country sizes. For instance, the United States looks almost as wide as Africa on a Mercator map, while in reality, the entirety of the United States, China, and India could fit within Africa with room to spare. Map projections like the Goode equal area projection attempt to represent areas more accurately, at the cost of distorting shapes or directions.
Despite the distortions, Mercator's method greatly aided sailors in their voyages when used in conjunction with navigation tools such as star charts. It helped sailors to understand their direction of travel and maintain their course over long distances, a revolution in cartography and navigation of its time. Today, various types of projections are used for different purposes, highlighting the importance of utilizing the right type of map for the specific need.