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Wounded Bear

(62,511 posts)

9. Mercator dates back to the days before longitude...

Reply to packman (Original post)

Sun Jun 5, 2022, 02:22 PM

Jun 2022

Well, they knew about and "had" longitude, but there were no great ways to measure it out at sea. Sailors tended to sail north-south to the proper latitude (which is relatively easy to measure) and then go east-west. Until there was a reliable way to measure longitude at sea, Mercator worked well enough.

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Interesting - Countries real sizes [View all] packman Jun 2022 OP

It was always a misleading tool for Western Colonialism genxlib Jun 2022 #1

You don't need a huge country geographically if you can dominate highplainsdem Jun 2022 #11

Thanks! Never learned this in school - I had to watch The West Wing. Tadpole Raisin Jun 2022 #2

Yes very interesting. Fla Dem Jun 2022 #3

The perils of trying to project a 3-D curved surface onto a 2-D flat surface. lastlib Jun 2022 #8

Well, that's an eye opener. How interesting. I didn't have a clue. nt Biophilic Jun 2022 #4

There are several less-distorted alternatives to Mercator. eppur_se_muova Jun 2022 #5

Where is Antarctica? Sneederbunk Jun 2022 #6

The Gall-Peters projection of the world map as comparison. Ferrets are Cool Jun 2022 #7

Mercator dates back to the days before longitude... Wounded Bear Jun 2022 #9

Maps have always been either tools for enlightenment or kairos12 Jun 2022 #10