Illustration of Mercator projection

1569 Mercator projection

The book of science

Tom Sharp

Gerardus Mercator cartography Illustration of Mercator projection

Mercator projection

Gerardus Mercator printed the first map of the world that represented sailing courses of constant bearing as straight lines. This map featured orthogonal, evenly spaced lines of longitude, and lines of latitude spaced farther apart as they neared the poles so that the north-south stretching exactly matches the east-west stretching, making the projection conformal. Exaggerating the sizes of land near the poles, it caused generations of children to think Greenland was bigger than Australia.

Projections

The world has always been larger than the view from your window. You might never go to Timbuctoo except with a map in your mind. In your mind, the world can assume the shape of the angel or demon that possesses you. The mountains her body, the rivers her voice, the oceans her soul. But a map pulls back the curtains and opens the window. It makes the world larger and less personal, more mysterious and more loving.

Loxodromes

One’s straight lines are another’s slow curves. A soft ball spins and weaves the distance over and over from mound to home until it is caught or hit. Here, I would talk about art. I would say how I feel about appearing to spiral out of control. It’s not bad in retrospect. Even at the time, when the alternatives were not imaginable, one wondered whether loving oneself would be enough. A pattern eventually fills the space following a simple rule of thumb. The thumb fits into a glove. The outfielder makes the catch out in left field.

A loxodrome, also known as a rhumb line, maintains a constant angle to the north pole so that on a globe it can trace a spiral to the north pole, rather than taking the shortest distance. This is sort of like life, at least for us lucky people.

See also in The book of science:

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