Does the Mercator projection show the size shape or the location of continents more accurately on a map?

Does the Mercator projection show the size shape or the location of continents more accurately on a map?

The Mercator projection map shows the accurate locations of the continents and oceans. The land and water areas, however, are greatly distorted toward the North and South Poles.

What does the Mercator map show accurately?

One measure of a map’s accuracy is a comparison of the length of corresponding line elements on the map and globe. Therefore, by construction, the Mercator projection is perfectly accurate, k = 1, along the equator and nowhere else.

Why the Mercator projection is wrong?

Mercator maps distort the shape and relative size of continents, particularly near the poles. The popular Mercator projection distorts the relative size of landmasses, exaggerating the size of land near the poles as compared to areas near the equator.

When would you use a Mercator projection?

This projection is widely used for navigation charts, because any straight line on a Mercator projection map is a line of constant true bearing that enables a navigator to plot a straight-line course.

How does Mercator projection affect size of countries?

And while it is very big, it’s nowhere near the size of the continent of Africa. The map above shows the distortion in sizes of countries due to the mercator projection. Pressing on the button animates the country ‘shrinking’ to its actual size or ‘growing’ to the size shown on the mercator projection.

When did Gerardus Mercator create the first map?

With any map projection style, the big challenge lies in depicting a spherical object as a 2D graphic. There are various trade-offs with any map style, and those trade-offs can vary depending on how the map is meant to be used. In 1569, the great cartographer, Gerardus Mercator, created a revolutionary new map based on a cylindrical projection.

Is the Mercator map of the northern hemisphere correct?

Their “true” map is clearly incorrect, which is verifiable simply by observing the land border between Canada and the USA. It no longer matches up, meaning they’ve over-corrected. That said, your claim is wrong, too. Everything in the northern hemisphere is heavily stretched both vertically and horizontally.

How are areas far from the equator distorted?

Areas far from the equator are distorted in terms of their distances and are shown much larger than they actually are. This is one of the major issues with a projection of a globe onto a cylinder area.