Editing 2082: Mercator Projection
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| β | The {{w|Mercator projection}} is a {{w|map projection}} (a way to present the spherical Earth surface into a flat 2-D map) presented by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It was the standard map projection for some time, because it does preserve all angles in their true shape (i.e. it is a {{w|conformal map projection}}). This means that if you measure an angle on the map you get the right direction in the real world - a very useful feature if you're using the map for navigating. However, preserving the angle leads to severe distortions of the surface area, especially in the higher latitudes where countries appear much larger than they actually are. For example on the Mercator Projection, Greenland (the largest non-continent island in the world) is shown to be much larger than Australia (the smallest continent), although the latter in reality is nearly 4 times as big | + | The {{w|Mercator projection}} is a {{w|map projection}} (a way to present the spherical Earth surface into a flat 2-D map) presented by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It was the standard map projection for some time, because it does preserve all angles in their true shape (i.e. it is a {{w|conformal map projection}}). This means that if you measure an angle on the map you get the right direction in the real world - a very useful feature if you're using the map for navigating. However, preserving the angle leads to severe distortions of the surface area, especially in the higher latitudes where countries appear much larger than they actually are. For example on the Mercator Projection, Greenland (the largest non-continent island in the world) is shown to be much larger than Australia (the smallest continent), although the latter in reality is nearly 4 times as big. |
[[Cueball]] uses [[White Hat|White Hat's]] mistrust of the Mercator projection to convince him of ridiculous facts about Canada, namely that it is simply a small island in {{w|Lake Ontario}}. Map projections are generally {{w|continuous function}}s, meaning that they never map a {{w|disconnected space}} onto a connected one and therefore can never give the false impression that two areas that don't border each other do. | [[Cueball]] uses [[White Hat|White Hat's]] mistrust of the Mercator projection to convince him of ridiculous facts about Canada, namely that it is simply a small island in {{w|Lake Ontario}}. Map projections are generally {{w|continuous function}}s, meaning that they never map a {{w|disconnected space}} onto a connected one and therefore can never give the false impression that two areas that don't border each other do. | ||
