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What is Mercator's projection for maps?

The Mercator projection is a technique used by cartographers (mapmakers) to transfer the spherical properties of the Earth to the flat surface of a map. It was created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. The Mercator projection is most useful for navigation, since compass directions appear as straight lines.

To present land and sea in their correct proportions, the east-west parallels, or lines of latitude, are spaced at increasingly large distances toward the poles. This results in a severe exaggeration of size in the polar regions. In a Mercator projection Greenland, for example, appears five times larger than it actually is.

Sources: Chambers Science and Technology Dictionary, p. 564; Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition, vol. 18, pp. 283-84.

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