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Would Greenland be smaller on a Mercator or a Robinson map projection?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
It would show up smaller on a Mercator map projection
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
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What part of the earth is squeezed into a smaller area by the Mercator projection?
A
What is gerardus mercator famous for?
Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) developed a method (Mercator cylindrical projection) of displaying the Earth's surface (which is curved) as a flat nautical map. On his map of 1569, sailing courses along a fixed bearing appeared as straight lines with the proper angle to the meridians. (But areas nearer the equator appear smaller than similar areas nearer the poles.) This map could not be fully applied to its intended use (sailing) until nearly 200 years later.
What can happen when map projections is used for a purpose for which it is not designed?
A "projection" is used to convert the pattern of the spherical Earth to a flat sheet of paper. All projections imply some amount distortion; the only accurate map is a globe. We can generally reduce, or even minimize, the impact of the distortion by selecting proper type of projection. Using a map with the wrong type of projection for the wrong area can lead you to make mistakes. For example, most of us have seen standard Mercator projection maps of the entire world. Look at one now. You see South America? You see Greenland? On a Mercator map, Greenland looks bigger. On the Earth, Greenland is MUCH smaller than South America! Large scale (small area) maps can be quite accurate, but small scale (large area) maps are bound to cause some distortion. Here's another example; look at a map that shows both the USA and England. Which direction would you fly from San Francisco, California to London, England? If you said "east", you wasted a LOT of fuel; the correct answer is "north-northeast". The shortest path from SFO to Heathrow goes north over Canada, almost to the pole, before "curving" south to Scotland and England. The straight line on the map isn't the same as the straight line on the globe!
What are the disadvantages for a Robinson projection?
Advantage: useful for displaying information across the oceans Disadvantage: land areas are much smaller than on the interrupted maps of the same size when allocating space to the oceans
Is longitude lines parallel?
Short answer #1: Although longitude lines are drawn parallel on most world maps, they are not parallel on a globe, which is the most accurate model of Earth. Short answer #2: It's just a convention, like electrons being considered negative and protons considered positive (or the QWERTY keyboard layout vs. Dvorak). They could have sliced the Earth vertically the same way they sliced it horizontally--with smaller circles toward the Asia and the US instead of toward the poles--but perhaps they couldn't decide where the absolute East and West are as easily as they could decide on North and South. [That's just speculation.] Long version of answer #1: Most world maps are Mercator/cylindrical projections, which distort the sizes of continents and bodies of water more and more toward the north and south poles, making Antarctica and Greenland look way bigger than they should (as compared to the other continents). It's like taking the peel off of an orange and flattening it out on a table--you'll have to rip the peel to do it--and then filling in all of the empty spaces with an orange marker so that it fits a rectangular shape. All of the orange ink is distortion. You wouldn't want to use a rectangular shape like that to describe an orange to someone who's never seen one before, but I guess you could if you had to. Always remember that when you're looking at a world map. There are alternatives to the Mercator projection that preserve the relative sizes of the continents and bodies of water, but every flat drawing of Earth is distorted in some way, which is probably why they still use the Mercator projection so much--it's not easy to convince someone that one projection is better than another. [more speculation]
Is Greenland larger on a Robinson projection than it should be?
Well, Greenland is BIGGEST on a mercator projection but on a Robinson it is smaller because the lines of latitude remain parallel, and lines of longitude are curved as they are on the globe. This results in lesser distortion near the poles. So your answer is most likely, no. DEPENDING on what map you look at.
How do you describe a mercator map projection?
A mercator map is best described as bigger and smaller portions of land than what is actually is
What part of the earth is squeezed into a smaller area by the Mercator projection?
A
What are the disadvantage of a mercator projection?
there is distortion at the north and south poles. The land sizes of the continents closest to the equator are smaller than they really are. But Mercator maps are very useful for sailors or pilots for finding direction.
Why does Greenland appear to be larger on a mercator projection than it does on a Robinson project?
The world is round, but maps are done on flat surfaces. To compensate for this, countries further from the equator get stretched. Greenland appears to be as big as all of Africa on a map like that, where in fact it is only about the size of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Alaska looks about half the size of the lower 48 states, but in reality it is much smaller. Watch for the lines of latitude and longitude to give a better idea of how big countries are in relation to each other.
Why Greenland is smaller?
smaller than what
How is peters projection different to a real map?
Well the Peter's Projection IS a "real map," as you say; or rather, another projection. There are hundreds out there and none are better than any others. It just depends on what you're using it for. The Peter's Projection is just an image of the world that, when it was brought out in 1974, was different than anyone had previously seen, since the Mercator projection in 1596. The Peter's Projection basically is a more accurate version of what you are referring to as a "real map." A Mercator projection shows the shapes of land masses as they appear on a globe, but flattened out, which gives an extremely inaccurate picture of the size of the masses. (For instance, it shows Greenland as being roughly the same size as Africa, when in fact it 14 times smaller!!) The Peter's was created in order to show the true size of land masses, in a more fair representation. It does, however, sacrifice true shape.The best thing you can do is look at images of several projections next to each other so that you can see what I mean.Check out website with URL in related links for Explanation & Guide of the Peters World Map.
What is gerardus mercator famous for?
Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) developed a method (Mercator cylindrical projection) of displaying the Earth's surface (which is curved) as a flat nautical map. On his map of 1569, sailing courses along a fixed bearing appeared as straight lines with the proper angle to the meridians. (But areas nearer the equator appear smaller than similar areas nearer the poles.) This map could not be fully applied to its intended use (sailing) until nearly 200 years later.
Is Greenland smaller than Europe?
Greenland is smaller than the United States. Greenland has a total area of 2,166,086 kilometers2 or 836,109 square miles and the United States has a total area of 9,826,675 kilometers2 or 3,794,101 square miles.
What can happen when map projections is used for a purpose for which it is not designed?
A "projection" is used to convert the pattern of the spherical Earth to a flat sheet of paper. All projections imply some amount distortion; the only accurate map is a globe. We can generally reduce, or even minimize, the impact of the distortion by selecting proper type of projection. Using a map with the wrong type of projection for the wrong area can lead you to make mistakes. For example, most of us have seen standard Mercator projection maps of the entire world. Look at one now. You see South America? You see Greenland? On a Mercator map, Greenland looks bigger. On the Earth, Greenland is MUCH smaller than South America! Large scale (small area) maps can be quite accurate, but small scale (large area) maps are bound to cause some distortion. Here's another example; look at a map that shows both the USA and England. Which direction would you fly from San Francisco, California to London, England? If you said "east", you wasted a LOT of fuel; the correct answer is "north-northeast". The shortest path from SFO to Heathrow goes north over Canada, almost to the pole, before "curving" south to Scotland and England. The straight line on the map isn't the same as the straight line on the globe!
What are the four types of map projections?
Mercator Projection : longitude and latitude as straight, parallel lines Conic Projection : a circular map made from a flattened cone, centered on a pole or other point Gall-Peters Projection : relocates standard parallels, narrows longitudinal spacing Robinson Projection : approximates a true spherical view of the Earth, except the poles Winkel Tripel Projection : an azimuth approximation of the world view, similar to Robinson The most widely used is the Mercator projection, the major disadvantage being its area expansions (areas closer to the poles appear larger and lack their true shapes). The Gall-Peters Projection provides a closer approximation of the relative areas. All flat representations of a spherical surface will create variances in "true" size or shape. (see image links)
What is the smaller European country located near Greenland?
Iceland
