Where does this come from, and can I check it?

The 1569 map kept compass bearings straight at the cost of exaggerated poles. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a history fact?

Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Mercator's projection stretched the globe to help navigators

The 1569 map kept compass bearings straight at the cost of exaggerated poles Gerardus Mercator published a world map in 1569 on a projection where a straight line matches a constant compass bearing, which made plotting sea courses far easier. The price is distortion: land near the poles is drawn far larger than it is. The projection remains standard for navigation charts and web maps today. It sits in Mondo's history collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Library of Congress

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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History trivia World Geography trivia

More facts like this

The Great Trigonometrical Survey measured all of IndiaChains of triangles across the subcontinent fixed distances and heights to a few inches A carpenter's clock solved the longitude problemJohn Harrison's H4 lost only seconds over an eighty-one day voyage to Jamaica The Mercator projection inflates the poles enormouslyOn this map Greenland looks as large as Africa, though Africa is about fourteen times bigger Every flat map distorts area, shape or distanceA sphere cannot be flattened without stretching something, so mapmakers choose which error to accept The Peters projection trades shape for accurate areaIt keeps relative sizes honest but makes continents long and thin, and it is widely criticised Map scale is a ratio, not a rulerA scale of 1 to 50,000 means one centimetre on paper covers half a kilometre on the ground

Tags: cartography, mercator, navigation

Mercator's projection stretched the globe to help navigators: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: The 1569 map kept compass bearings straight at the cost of exaggerated poles. The figure is taken from Library of Congress, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a history fact?: Yes. It sits on the History shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.