Mercator

Mercator is a well known map projection developed for navigation purposes. As with each and every map projection, the Mercator projection has its own characteristic set of distortions.

After being exposed to the Mercator projections and the Mercator maps for centuries, we are so used to the familiar projection of the face of the earth, that we consider this image as being 'normal', and we don't notice the distortions any more. However, since Mercator was primarily interested in angles and directions (navigational purposes), this projection compromises area and distance.

As with each and every projection method, Mercator struggled with the problem of how to project a sphere (the earth) onto a flat piece of paper. To solve this problem, Mercator chose the poles of the earth as two points where he 'sliced open the earth'. The flat image occurs by extending the poles very much over the entire width of the paper. But, with any sphere and thus with the globe, any two sets of opposite points can be regarded the poles of the sphere. Thus, any set of two opposing points can be used as points where to slice open the earth and extent them over the entire width of the paper.

The resulting maps do indeed show enormous distortions of the so well know surface of the earth. Realise however, that each of the resulting image has an equally high quality of projection, and the distortion of our well known Mercator projection is just as large as in any of the other images.Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.

Mercator is a project executed in 1997 by Willem van Deursen, Carthago Consultancy and Lucas Verweij of buro Schie 2.0.