Ele Willoughby, PhD

Happy birthday to Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) renown Flemish cartographer.

What made Mercator a great #cartographer, was in fact his abilities as a #mathematician -and like those of us scientists who feel compelled also to create art he was wasn’t hindered by his immense ability as an engraver. He produced beautiful world maps (a version of which is depicted in this print), 🧵1/

https://minouette.etsy.com/listing/170817596

#geographer #geography #histstm #sciart #linocut #printmaking #mapart #maps #Mercator

Mar 5 at 12:31pmWeb
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 5
globes, but his name has gone down in history for the Mercator Projection. The Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection which became the standard map projection for nautical purposes because of its ability to represent lines of constant course, known as rhumb lines or loxodromes, as straight segments. While the linear scale is constant in all directions around any point, thus preserving the angles and the shapes of small objects (which makes the projection conformal), the 🧵2/
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 5

Mercator projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the poles, where it becomes infinite.

The Mercator projection will be quite familiar to you. It is generally used as a sort of ‘default’ projection, even today. If you are Canadian, like me, you might be lead to over-estimate the size of the arctic archipelago and underestimate the immensity of the African continent, due to the ubiquity of this projection. 🧵3/4

Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 5

But its goal was not to represent relative area (which it does poorly). However, his achievement was fundamental to the explosion in exploration that came after his paradigm breaking world maps.

🧵4/4

Show threadWordstitcher Mar 5
@minouette
Mercator, who produced vastly distorted maps of our continents, should not be celebrated. Time to have maps that are accurate, no matter how inconvenient. Buy a globe and learn.
Show threadGoblinMar 5

@wordstitcher

Didn‘t @minouette just write, that those maps were not made for depicting land masses, but for navigation?

Blaming the inventor that people are using his invention for things, it wasn‘t invented for, seems a bit harsh.

Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 5

Thanks @goblin

I would add @wordstitcher that telling someone with a doctorate in geophysics to “get a globe and learn” is more than a little ill-informed and condescending. You can read my entire thread if you want to learn why Mercator deserves to be celebrated, and how his projection is invaluable in navigation but not a good selection for displaying land masses.

Show threadWordstitcher Mar 5
@minouette @goblin
My point was that no one these days needs a Mercator projection for navigation, however wonderful it was when it was created (I don't dispute that). We have modern navigational aids now.
Instead, we have politicians apparently believing that the map is an accurate representation of the continents, which it clearly is not. It should come with an idiot warning.
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhDMar 5

@wordstitcher @goblin As a marine geophysicist who does fieldwork at sea I assure that is simply not true. Nautical charts are in the Mercator projection as it remains the most useful for navigation. It is absolutely how anyone would plot a transect at sea or plan a flight. They remain as useful today as when he first developed the math. The appropriate projection should be determined by the use case.

The fact that people use it inappropriately is not a good reason to criticize him or be rude.

Show threadWordstitcher 6d ago

@minouette @goblin

You said it: "The appropriate projection should be determined by the use case."
So why is this projection included in every atlas, where nautical navigation is hardly relevant? And it is NEVER explained.
I didn't criticize Mercator, nor did I dispute his genius. I'm stating a practical public misconception. That doesn't make me 'rude'.

Show threadGoblin6d ago

@wordstitcher @minouette

Maybe you should read your original comment again, in which you reacted to a personal piece of art and research with harsh words.

Your frustration about the domination of the Mercator Projection and its questionable use in the media is understandable, but using words like "Buy a globe and learn" or later on "idiot warning" is a bit much for a civil conversation about a passion project.

Show threadWordstitcher 6d ago
@goblin @minouette
If you choose to be insulted by honest comments, then you need a rethink about your 'passion'. You're hardly impartial. Art is one thing, and does not depict reality, but the 'sight' of the artist. A piece of mathematical history, however wonderful, used as a global reference, out of context, is entirely different.
I won't be the only one who sees this dichotomy.
Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD6d ago

@wordstitcher @goblin

You don’t have to like my art or enjoy history of science or even comment.
Your comments were inaccurate not “honest”. You asserted he shouldn’t be celebrated as if it’s his fault his projection is used today & that the projection is no longer useful which is simply not the case.

If you really think telling me to “get a globe and learn” or saying maps need “idiot warnings” wasn’t rude, than I suggest working on self-awareness. You’re choosing to be insulted.

Show threadEle Willoughby, PhD6d ago

@wordstitcher @goblin

you literally wrote that he “shouldn’t be celebrated,” and that I should “get a globe and learn” in response to me sharing my print and some history of science (which if you’d bothered to read the short thread you would see explained how his projection is useful, when it is not, and further that Mercator himself of course made globes).