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Topic: Mercator projection


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  OMC: supported projections
Projection number five (Azimuthal Equidistant Projection) returns a circular plot of the entire world with the area of interest as the center, distances measured from there are true.
The Mercator projection has been used extensively for world maps im which the distortion towards the polar regions grows rather large, thus incorrectly giving the impression that, for example, Greenland is larger than South America.
It is a useful projection for a global view of locations at various or identical distance from a given point (the map center).
www.aquarius.geomar.de /omc/omc_project.html   (628 words)

  
  Mercator   (Site not responding. Last check: )
The classic schoolroom map of the Earth in Mercator projection that has convinced generations of school children that Greenland is as large as North America is a case in point.
projection topic for additional discussion of the Mercator projection, why it is especially useful in the Third World and the evil political attack on its usage.
A Transverse Mercator projection is achieved when the Mercator projection's cylinder is rotated about the Earth so that instead of the Equator being the central ring of the cylinder a Meridian (that is, a longitude line) becomes the central ring.
www.manifold.net /doc/7x/mercator.htm   (522 words)

  
  Mercator projection - Biocrawler   (Site not responding. Last check: )
The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection devised by Gerardus Mercator in 1569.
The Mercator projection exaggerates the size (and to a lesser extent, the shape) of areas far from the equator.
Although the Mercator projection is still in common use for navigation, critics argue that it is not suited to representing the entire world in publications and wall maps due to its distortion of land area.
www.biocrawler.com /encyclopedia/Mercator_projection   (617 words)

  
  Mercator projection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the German geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator, in 1569, in a large planisphere measuring 202 by 124 cm, printed in eighteen separate sheets.
The abuse of the Mercator projection in world representations, as well as the controversy caused by the political promotion of the so-called Gall-Peters projection, led several American geographic societies to approve, in 1989-90, a recommendation rejecting the use of rectangular world maps for general purposes or artistic displays.
Although the Mercator projection is still in common use for navigation, critics argue that it is not suited to representing the entire world in publications and wall maps due to its distortion of land area.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Mercator_projection   (1211 words)

  
 Kids.Net.Au - Encyclopedia > Mercator projection   (Site not responding. Last check: )
The Mercator projection is a map projection devised by Gerardus Mercator in 1569.
The Mercator projection wildly distorts area: Greenland is presented as having roughly the same size as Africa, when in fact Africa is approximately 13 times larger than Greenland.
Although the Mercator projection is still in common use for navigation, some critics argue that is no longer suited to represent the entire world in publications and wall maps.
www.kids.net.au /encyclopedia-wiki/me/Mercator_projection   (496 words)

  
 Spartanburg SC | GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal   (Site not responding. Last check: )
The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator, in 1569.
The abuse of the Mercator projection in world representations, as well as the controversy caused by the political promotion of the so-called Gall-Peters projection, led several American geographic societies to approve, in 1989-90, a recommendation rejecting the use of rectangular world maps for general purposes or artistic displays.
Like all map projections, which attempt to fit a curved surface onto a flat sheet, the shape of the map is a distortion of the true layout of the Earth's surface.
www.goupstate.com /apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=wiki&text=Mercator_projection   (1276 words)

  
 Science Fair Projects - Transverse Mercator projection
A transverse Mercator projection is a map projection similar to the Mercator projection in that it is a projection of Earth on a tangent cylinder by rays radial with respect to the cylinder.
This kind of projection is useful for mapping small areas or areas with a small longitude range, e.g., Chile, since the distortion grows together with the distance from the tangent meridian.
However, this is achieved at the cost of discontinuity: a zone border point is projected at two different locations, unless it lies on the equator; a line connecting two points at neighboring zones is not continuous, again, unless it crosses the zone border at the equator.
www.all-science-fair-projects.com /science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Transverse_Mercator_projection   (517 words)

  
 * Mercator Projection- (GIS): Definition
A Mercator projection is a type of rectangular map in which the true compass direction are kept intact (lines of latitude and longitude intersect at right angles), but areas are distorted (for example,...
Mercator projection The Mercator projection is a conformal cylindrical projection.
Mercator Projection: A map projection designed by Gerardus Mercator, where the earth's surface is drawn as it would appear if projected on a cylinder wrapped around the earth.
en.mimi.hu /gis/mercator_projection.html   (660 words)

  
 Gerardus Mercator Summary
Mercator's 1569 world map was one part of his plan of publications that began the same year with the publishing of a chronology of the world from its creation to 1568, followed, in 1578, by the publication of 27 maps originally prepared by the Greek geographer Ptolemy with corrections and commentary by Mercator.
Mercator's own independent map-making only began when he produced a map of Palestine in 1537, and this was followed by another map of the world (1538) and a map of Flanders (1540).
Mercator moulded globes of papier-mâché on a wooden mould, then cut them along the equator; once reassembled, the globes were applied with gesso, a white mixture of thin plaster and sizing.
www.bookrags.com /Gerardus_Mercator   (4618 words)

  
 Map Projections: From Spherical Earth to Flat Map
A projection that maintains accurate distances from the center of the projection or along given lines is called an equidistant projection.
A projection that maintains accurate directions (and therefore angular relationships) from a given central point is called an azimuthal or zenithal projection.
Polyconic projection A conic projection projects information from the spherical Earth to a cone that is either tangent to the Earth at a single parallel, or that is secant at two standard parallels.
www.nationalatlas.gov /articles/mapping/a_projections.html   (2154 words)

  
 Map Projections: From Spherical Earth to Flat Map
A projection that maintains accurate distances from the center of the projection or along given lines is called an equidistant projection.
A projection that maintains accurate directions (and therefore angular relationships) from a given central point is called an azimuthal or zenithal projection.
Polyconic projection A conic projection projects information from the spherical Earth to a cone that is either tangent to the Earth at a single parallel, or that is secant at two standard parallels.
nationalatlas.gov /articles/mapping/a_projections.html   (2154 words)

  
 Science Fair Projects - Mercator projection
In the era of sailing ships, time of travel was subject to the elements, hence the distance traveled was not as important as the direction taken—especially since longitude was hard to determine accurately.
Although the Mercator projection is still in common use for navigation, critics argue that it is not suited to representing the entire world in publications and wall maps due to its distortion of land area—particularly, the exaggeration of the size of Europe and North America compared with South America and Africa.
Some Mercator maps omit most or all of Antarctica, with the effect of placing Europe at the center of the map; these peculiarities are considered by some to perpetuate the idea of the inferiority of the Third World.
www.all-science-fair-projects.com /science_fair_projects_encyclopedia/Mercator_projection   (758 words)

  
 DIVERSOPHY.COM - using the Peters Map
Mercator's projection (created at a time when navigators were sailing on the oceans in wooden ships, powered by the wind, and navigating by the stars) was particularly useful because straight lines on his projection were lines of constant compass bearing.
The Peters projection is commonly used in contrast to a Mercator projection, and is visually engaging because it is so jarringly different.
The Van der Grinten projection was developed in 1904 and was the official projection of the National Geographic Society from 1922 to 1988.
www.diversophy.com /petersmap.htm   (1469 words)

  
 Transverse Mercator Projection
a transverse Mercator projection, the cylinder is ro-tated
On the transverse Mercator projection, however, the area in the higher longitude would be larger.
A Mercator projection table is used to plot the meridional distances.
www.tpub.com /inteng/9g.htm   (412 words)

  
 Mercator
Mercator reasoned that since the meridians approached one another as one approached the poles, while the distance between them was represented by a constant distance on the map, the perpendicular distance should increase proportionally, to make the scales equal in all directions.
Mercator had no calculus, as we have, to work out the projection exactly, but he could measure the distances between meridians on his globe and draw his map accordingly, using what we would now call numerical integration.
The Mercator map is a conformal map with the scale decreasing toward the poles.
www.du.edu /~jcalvert/math/mercator.htm   (3839 words)

  
 What is a Mercator Projection   (Site not responding. Last check: )
A Mercator projection is a mathematical method of showing a map of the globe on a flat surface.
In a Mercator projection, the lines of longitude are straight vertical lines equal distance apart at all latitudes, and horizontal distances are stretched above and below the equator this stretching is exaggerated near the poles.
The projection is not useful for latitudes near the poles; J-Track's projection goes from 78 degrees north latitude to 70 degrees south latitude.
science.nasa.gov /Realtime/rocket_sci/orbmech/mercator.html   (195 words)

  
 Gerardus Mercator
Gerardus Mercator was a geographer, cartographer and mathematician born in Flanders.
Mercator was born in Rupelmonde in Flanders and had studied geography, cartography and mathematics at the University of Leuven (Louvain) in Belgium.
Mercator's main work, a three volume world atlas, was published in several editions from 1585 on and beyond his death in 1594.
www.artelino.com /articles/gerardus_mercator.asp   (444 words)

  
 The Mercator Projection
This projection was so ubiquitous that it even gave rise to concerns that people were deriving their ideas of what the world was like from it, instead of from the globe.
That is because the Mercator projection is conformal.
The reason for the popularity of the Transverse Mercator, and for the previous popularity, as an approximation, of the Polyconic and related projections is because even on a large-scale map, there are slight errors because the map is flat and the Earth is round.
members.shaw.ca /quadibloc/maps/mcy0101.htm   (1048 words)

  
 Projection | World of Earth Science
The Mercator projection is accurate at the equator but becomes progressively more distorted toward the poles, while polar stereographic maps preserve high-latitude coordinates at the expense of equatorial regions.
Mercator maps have straight, evenly spaced lines of latitude and longitude that intersect at right angles, and are undistorted in scale at the equator, or at two lines of latitude equidistant to the equator.
Azimuthal projections are variously used for aeronautical navigation (azimuthal equidistant), maps of the ocean basins (Lambert azimuthal equal area), maps of the hemispheres (orthographic), and polar navigation (stereographic).
www.bookrags.com /research/projection-woes-02   (396 words)

  
 Map Projection Overview
Map projections are attempts to portray the surface of the earth or a portion of the earth on a flat surface.
Gall's stereographic cylindrical projection results from projecting the earth's surface from the equator onto a secant cylinder intersected by the globe at 45 degrees north and 45 degrees south.
The Peters projection is a cylindrical equal-area projection that de-emphasizes area exaggerations in high latitudes by shifting the standard parallels to 45 or 47 degrees.
www.colorado.edu /geography/gcraft/notes/mapproj/mapproj.html   (1829 words)

  
 Cylindrical Projections
Mercator's projection is partially developed by projecting the globe onto the cylinder from the center of the globe.
To properly use the projection, the user should be aware that the two points on the globe 90 degrees from the central great circle (e.g., the North and South Poles in the case that the selected great circle is the equator) are mapped to infinite distances.
The cylindrical equidistant projection is one of the simplest projections to construct.
www.physics.nyu.edu /grierlab/idl_html_help/projections10.html   (1002 words)

  
 map projection. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05
Some projections preserve correct relative distances in all directions from the center of the map (equidistant projection); some show areas equal to (equal-area projection) or shapes similar to (conformal projection) those on a globe of the same scale; some are useful in determining direction.
Projections are classified as cylindrical, conic, or azimuthal according to the method of projection with a light source; many projections that can be constructed only mathematically are also classified according to this system.
In all cylindrical projections the meridians of longitude, which on the globe converge at the poles, are parallel to one another; in the Mercator projection the parallels of latitude, which on the globe are equal distances apart, are drawn with increasing separation as their distance from the equator increases in order to preserve shapes.
www.bartelby.com /65/ma/mapproje.html   (905 words)

  
 Gerardus Mercator   (Site not responding. Last check: )
His projection, or way of showing the world on a flat surface, is called a Mercator projection.
In Mercator projections, longitude lines parallel each other instead of meeting at the Poles as they do on a globe.
Mercator found that compass courses could be drawn as straight lines on his map.
www.eduplace.com /kids/socsci/sc/books/bkf1/biographies/bk_template.jsp?name=mercatorg&bk=bkf1   (176 words)

  
 The Universal Transverse Mercator System
The familiar Mercator projection used on so many world maps is a cylindrical projection, meaning the globe is encircled by an imaginary cylinder touching at the equator, and the earth is projected onto the cylinder.
The Mercator projection is a conformal projection, meaning that angles and small shapes on the globe project as the same angles or shapes on the map.
Such a projection is called a Transverse Mercator projection (shown at left).
www.uwgb.edu /dutchs/FieldMethods/UTMSystem.htm   (3183 words)

  
 Mercator Projection
Again, a geometric central or parallel projection does not give a conformal map, but a conformal map can be defined mathematically in which the scale is the same on any two parallels of latitude.
Mercator maps often appear in businesses, in libraries and in classrooms where geography is taught.
This popularity is surprising, given the fact that the Mercator projection was first constructed in 1569, primarily for use by navigators.
lycos.cs.cmu.edu /info/mercator-projection.html   (377 words)

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