Definition:Mercator's Projection

Definition

Mercator's projection is the geometric projection of a sphere $\SS$ onto the plane.

It is obtained by:

circumscribing a cylinder $\CC$ about $\SS$

projecting each point $P$ on the surface of $\SS$ onto $\CC$ along the ray from the center of $\SS$ through $P$

unrolling $\CC$ onto the plane.

Also see

• Results about Mercator's projection can be found here.

Source of Name

This entry was named for Gerardus Mercator.

Historical Note

Mercator's projection was originally designed by Gerardus Mercator in $1569$, in order to present a map of Earth's surface.

In this context, the cylinder circumscribing Earth intersects it along the equator.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Mercator's projection
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): Mercator's projection