Gerardus mercator. Gerardus Mercator Biography 2022-10-06

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Gerardus Mercator was a Flemish cartographer and geographer who is best known for his work in creating the Mercator projection, a map projection that is widely used today in navigation and geography.

Mercator was born in 1512 in the small town of Rupelmonde in the County of Flanders, which was then a part of the Habsburg Netherlands. From a young age, he showed an aptitude for mathematics and science, and he received a thorough education in these subjects.

In 1530, Mercator enrolled at the University of Louvain, where he studied mathematics, astronomy, and geography. He quickly gained a reputation as an excellent student and was appointed to the position of professor of mathematics in 1539.

In 1540, Mercator began work on his most famous project: the creation of a new map projection that would be more accurate and useful for navigation. At the time, most maps were based on the Ptolemaic projection, which was a flat map that distorted the shapes of land masses as they got farther from the equator. Mercator's projection, on the other hand, was a cylindrical projection that preserved the shapes of land masses but distorted their sizes. This made it much more useful for navigation, as it allowed sailors to plot a straight course on a map and follow it on their journeys.

Mercator's projection quickly gained popularity and was adopted by navigators and cartographers around the world. Today, it is still widely used in navigation and geography, although it has been modified and improved upon over the years.

In addition to his work on the Mercator projection, Mercator also made significant contributions to the field of geography. He published a number of maps and atlases, including the first world atlas to be printed on a flat projection. He also wrote a number of treatises on geography, cartography, and mathematics, and he was considered one of the leading experts in these fields during his lifetime.

Overall, Gerardus Mercator was a pioneering figure in the field of cartography and geography, and his contributions have had a lasting impact on the way we understand and study the world around us.

Gerardus Mercator Biography

gerardus mercator

A cylindrical map projection is specified by formulae linking the geographic coordinates of latitude 蠁 and longitude 位 to Cartesian coordinates on the map with origin on the equator and x-axis along the equator. The Round Earth on Flat Paper s. Early Science and Medicine. The vessel arrived at the port of Manila Anch. Some numerical values are listed below.

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Gerard Mercator

gerardus mercator

Geographiae Libri Octo: recogniti iam et diligenter emendati. In 1537 Mercator created a map of the Holy Land and in 1538 he made a map of the world on a double heart-shaped or cordiform projection. Around this time the Mercator now turned to the modern maps, as author but no longer engraver: the practicalities of production of maps and globes had been passed to his sons and grandsons. The graph shows the variation of this scale factor with latitude. Since maps were so new, and because many countries were at war, mapmakers had to travel far and wide to gather information, which led to accusations of espionage or heresy.

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Gerardus Mercator

gerardus mercator

Mercator created his maps by meshing his technical expertise making globes with mathematical insights. That's why today, on what would have been his 503rd birthday, he's being celebrated worldwide including with a Yet Mercator wasn't always so widely appreciated. The corresponding distances for latitudes 20掳, 40掳, 60掳 and 80掳 are 846km, 689km, 450km and 156km respectively. To learn more or opt-out, read our By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. For sixty years they were considered the finest in the world, and were sold in such numbers that there are many surviving examples. Certaine Errors 1599 鈥攖he relevant error being the erroneous belief that straight lines on Many cities have a statue of Mercator. Plate Tectonics and Geomagnetic Reversals.

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Gerardus Mercator summary

gerardus mercator

This title, along with an elaborate explanation for using the projection that appears as a section of text on the map, shows that Mercator understood exactly what he had achieved and that he intended the projection to aid navigation. I liked not only the description of the Earth but the structure of the whole machinery of the world. Mercator was apprehended in Rupelmonde and imprisoned in the castle. Rumold avowed that a second volume would attend to these deficiencies but it was not forthcoming and the whole project lost momentum; Rumold, who was 55 years old in 1595, was in decline and died in 1599. Imperatoris domesticus a member of the Imperial household. The terrestrial globe is significant in conjecturing that North America is separated from Asia, unlike the globe of Monachus.


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The Birth of Gerardus Mercator

gerardus mercator

Geographic maps according to Claudius Ptolemy, drawn in the spirit of the author and expanded by Gerard Mercator Mercator's definitive version of Ptolemy's 28 maps. } Once again, if 螖 蠁 may be read directly from an accurate latitude scale on the map, then the rhumb distance between map points with latitudes 蠁 1 and 蠁 2 is given by the above. Old maps had problems, however. Both of the globes and their un-pasted gores may be examined in high resolution. The globe was manufactured in great numbers but it was never updated. For all other values it is a spiral from pole to pole on the globe intersecting all meridians at the same angle, and is thus not a great circle. It permitted mariners to steer a course over long distances, plotting straight lines without continually adjusting compass readings.

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Gerardus Mercator

gerardus mercator

} The above formulae are written in terms of the globe radius R. More often than not the maps show only a graticule of selected meridians and parallels. Many library copies are The atlas includes further 28 maps: 16 of Britain, 4 of Denmark and one each of the polar regions, Less than half the pages in the atlas are maps. In Watelet, Marcel ed. Of these the chronology had already been accomplished, the account of the creation and the modern maps would appear in the atlas of 1595, his edition of Ptolemy appeared in 1578 but the ancient geography and the description of the heavens never appeared.

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Gerardus Mercator revolutionized mapmaking. He was almost executed for it.

gerardus mercator

It was hoped for source of the income that was needed to support them. The figure below shows a point P at latitude 蠁 and longitude 位 on the globe and a nearby point Q at latitude 蠁+ 未蠁 and longitude 位+ 未位. He was born Gerhard Kremer at Rupelmonde in Flanders now in Belgium , the seventh and last child of an impoverished German family which had recently moved there. In 1585 he issued a In 1589, at the age of 77, Mercator had a new lease of life. Common Map Projections s. Below is the article summary.

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Mercator projection

gerardus mercator

His new map was a revelation, because the projection kept the latitude and longitude lines at consistent 90 degree angles. Gerard Kremer, born March 5, 1512, Rupelmonde, Flanders鈥攄ied Dec. Mercator eventually mastered mathematics, geography, and astronomy and his work, combined with that of Frisius and a Myrica made Leuven a center for the development of globes, maps, and astronomical instruments. Ortelius wanted the portrait for inclusion his Album Amicorum. Later Life and Death In 1569 and throughout the 1570s Mercator began a series of publications to describe the creation of the world through maps. The distance AB along the parallel is acos 蠁 位.

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