In the 16th century, Gerardus Mercator, a Flemish cartographer devised a new way of depicting the world on a flat plane. We set off to explore his map in order to illustrate his biggest blunders, unearth curious facts and explain the advantages that make this representation of the globe still relevant today.
I especially like the fact that the several parts of the map get highlighted as you scroll, thanks to the use of ScrollMagic
Mercator – It’s a flat, flat world! →
IntersectionObserver)
🗺 In case you want to see for yourself how much Mercator distorts our view of the world, go play The Mercator Puzzle. In case you’re really into projections you might want to check out the contents of my talk Geoshizzle (from a long long time ago)
🌍 If you’re new to mapping & projections, or don’t want to read the lengthy article, this video from Vox sums it up quite nicely what’s wrong with the Mercator projection: