16th century? Huh I would have expected a far more accurate version would have been made and accepted long ago.
Especially since during all the centuries since then accurate navigation was needed, even around Afrika, and not make journeys last far longer by keeping an incorrect map.
Nautical navigation is where the Mercator map is actually the most useful. Any straight line drawn in it stays true and any angles are preserved. That’s why every nautical chart is done using a Mercator projection. It’s just not so great when blown up to the size of the world, but that was never really it’s intention.
I would have expected a far more accurate version would have been made and accepted long ago.
The earth is a three-dimensional globe, all two-dimensional projections will be incorrect, you can only choose which aspects (e.g. distances, areas or whatever) you want to keep correct.
16th century? Huh I would have expected a far more accurate version would have been made and accepted long ago.
Especially since during all the centuries since then accurate navigation was needed, even around Afrika, and not make journeys last far longer by keeping an incorrect map.
Nautical navigation is where the Mercator map is actually the most useful. Any straight line drawn in it stays true and any angles are preserved. That’s why every nautical chart is done using a Mercator projection. It’s just not so great when blown up to the size of the world, but that was never really it’s intention.
It was intentional as propaganda. During the Cold War, it made the U.S.S.R. look bigger and more of an imposing threat to the west.
Nope. It is hundreds of years older that that.
Yes it is older than that.
That doesn’t discount the fact that it was selected for that purpose.
WTF of course it discounts the fact that it was “selected for that purpose”.
The earth is a three-dimensional globe, all two-dimensional projections will be incorrect, you can only choose which aspects (e.g. distances, areas or whatever) you want to keep correct.