Mercator projection
- noun
- /mɜrˈkeɪtər prəˈdʒɛkʃən/
- Specialized
:
proyección de Mercator
- While the Mercator projection is popular for navigation, it can misrepresent how large countries really are.
Examples
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In this modified Mercator projection, some of the curvature of the earth is accepted into the map, bending the lines of latitude in order to reduce distortion of land areas relatively far from the equator.
Academic text (2000) -
The convention used here is the venerable Mercator projection, invented in 1569 by Gerhard Kremer, whose concerns were navigational above all.
Academic text (2000) -
This is another level of ethnocentrism that, like the Mercator projection, privileges the Northern Hemisphere over the Southern.
Academic text (2000) -
MAP: USA: MERCATOR PROJECTION
Academic text (2000) -
This Australian map, alas, undercuts its own primary intention to mock habitual Western cartography because it employs the bad old Mercator projection that for so long has downplayed the scale of the Southern Hemisphere.
Academic text (2000) -
Most world maps use the Mercator projection, which preserves shapes but distorts the size of land areas near the poles.
-
The Mercator projection allows sailors to plot straight-line courses, making it useful for maritime navigation.
Synonyms
A map that shows north-south and east-west lines as straight and makes polar areas look larger than they are
Surface Forms
Morphology
Mercator + projection
‘Projection’ signals a method of depicting one surface on another, so a B1 learner who knows the words can infer this is a kind of map projection. However, ‘Mercator’ is an eponym (a proper name) and gives no information about the specific properties (cylindrical form, conformality, area distortion), so the full technical meaning is not derivable from the parts.
Etymology
Mercator projection comes from the idea of wrapping the round Earth with a paper tube and then unrolling it to make a flat map, an image sailors liked because straight lines on the map match compass directions and help navigation. Because the tube stretches areas near the poles, places far from the equator look much larger, so the map keeps 'shape' but changes 'area'.
