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.
Q. How do cartographers determine which map projection to use?
The larger the area covered by a map, the greater the distortion. Depending on the map’s purpose, cartographers must decide what elements of accuracy are most important to preserve. This determines which projection to use. For example, conformal maps show true shapes of small areas but distort size.
Q. How do projections help cartographers?
In cartography, a map projection is a way to flatten a globe’s surface into a plane in order to make a map. Rather, any mathematical function that transforms coordinates from the curved surface distinctly and smoothly to the plane is a projection.
Q. What drawbacks were there to Mercator’s map?
Map Projections. Advantage: The Mercator map projection shows the correct shapes of the continents and directions accurately. Disadvantage: The Mercator map projection does not show true distances or sizes of continents, especially near the north and south poles.
Q. Is Mercator or Peters map better?
In addition, Mercator only distorts longitudinal distances (except very close to the poles), whereas Peters screws up the scale almost everywhere for both longitude and latitude. This is why Mercator beats out Peters in the world of cartography, and why Google Maps uses a modified Mercator projection.
Q. Why is the Mercator map so popular?
Mercator projection, type of map projection introduced in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator. 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.
Q. Why does Google Maps use Mercator?
Google Maps mainly uses the Mercator projection because it allows to preserve the angles. At first, Google Maps did not use this projection, and as a consequence in cities at high latitudes, right angles could not be maintained on roads and the like.
Q. Is Google Earth accurate size?
Relative to Landsat GeoCover, the 436 Google Earth control points have a positional accuracy of 39.7 meters RMSE (error magnitudes range from 0.4 to 171.6 meters).
Q. Why did Google Maps switch to a globe?
The issue derives from trying to represent a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface. Luckily for everyone, Google is solving this problem with the latest update to Google Maps. Google announced Thursday it will begin showing the Earth as a globe rather than a flat “mercator projection” as it formerly had.
