mercator

• Nom propre désignant le géographe et cartographe flamand Gérard Mercator, actif en Allemagne, célèbre pour avoir inventé la projection qui porte son nom pour les cartes du globe.

A proper noun referring to a Flemish geographer and cartographer who lived in Germany and is known for inventing the Mercator projection of maps of the globe.

indénombrable · nom propre

1. Flemish cartographerC1formal

   A 16th-century Flemish geographer and cartographer known for creating the Mercator projection, a map projection that represents rhumb lines as straight lines, aiding navigation.

   Mercator (cartographe)

   • Mercator's world map from 1569 revolutionized maritime navigation.
   • The University of Leuven educated many geographers, including Mercator.
   • Historians study Mercator's work to understand early modern cartography.

2. B2formaltechnical

   A cylindrical map projection developed by Gerardus Mercator, where lines of longitude and latitude are represented as straight lines, preserving angles but distorting area at high latitudes.

   projection de Mercator

   • The Mercator projection is commonly used for nautical charts.
   • Google Maps uses the Web Mercator projection for its tiles.
   • One drawback of the Mercator projection is the distortion of Greenland's size.