What is the difference between the Mercator and Peters projection?
The Mercator projection, by comparison, grossly distorts the sizes of the continents – causing the Greenland-is-larger-than-Africa effect – but stays true to their shapes. The Peters projection, by contrast, shows all the continents according to their true sizes, which is apparently fairer.
What is the difference between the Mercator style map and the Peter style map?
The Peters projection map uses a rectangular coordinate system that shows parallel lines of latitude and longitude. In reality, the Mercator map was never intended to be used as a wall map and by the time Peters started complaining about it, the Mercator map was well on its way out of fashion anyway.
What does the Gall-Peters projection fix about the Mercator map?
The Gall-Peters projection concentrates on getting the sizes of the continents correct, so for example Africa appears to be about as large as it does on a globe. Alaska also shrinks so that it no longer appears, wrongly, to be about the same size as the 48 mainland US states as shown on the Mercator map.
Why did Peters object to the Mercator projection?
Tissot’s indicatrix, a geometric equation used to show distortion on maps, explains the problems with Mercator. The Mercator, however, makes the North look much larger. Therefore, Peters argued, the Mercator projection shows a euro-centric bias and harms the world’s perception of developing countries.
What map is better than Mercator?
City authorities decided it would be best to introduce the Gall-Peters style map of Earth to schools, because it shows the size of countries more accurately. It replaces the traditional Mercator map style that many of us are familiar with. The Gall-Peters map.
Why is the Mercator projection best for plotting direction?
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.
What is the Mercator projection best used for?
Why is the Mercator projection so popular?
One of the most famous map projections is the Mercator, created by a Flemish cartographer and geographer, Geradus Mercator in 1569. It became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant true direction. Also, the lines of longitude are evenly spaced apart.
Is Peters map accurate?
The Gall-Peters map shows the correct sizes of countries, but it also distorts them. Countries are stretched horizontally near the poles and vertically near the Equator, so although the size may be right, the shape definitely isn’t.
Why is the Peters projection better?
The Peters World Map is an Equal Area cylindrical projection with standard parallels at 45 degrees thus resulting in a distortion of shape which is stretched about the equator and squashed towards the poles, but having the great advantage that all countries are correct in size in relation to each other.
What are the pros and cons of the Mercator projection?
Mercator Pros and Cons: Pros: 1. Being a cylindrical projection, the Mercator shows a great deal of the globe and is thus very good for world maps. 2. The Mercator is also conformal so shapes are preserved. These maps are therefore good for learning continents, oceans, and nations.
What are the main features of the Mercator projection?
Mer·ca·tor projection. (mər-kā′tər) A method of making a flat map of the Earth’s surface so that the meridians and parallels appear as straight lines that cross at right angles. In a Mercator projection, the areas farther from the equator appear larger, making the polar regions greatly distorted.
What does a Mercator map accurately show?
A Mercator map is a technique where compass directions are shown as straight lines. It helped sailors map routes to distant places and became the standard for world navigation. A Mercator map translates the globe onto a flat map.
What is a Mercator map best used as?
The Mercator projection was mainly used for maps. This made it possible for the entire globe to be drawn on a flat sheet. It is also used for marine navigation since the lines of constant direction appear as straight lines on the map.