The
Mercator projection is a cylindrical map projection presented by the
Flemish geographer and cartographer
Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It 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 which conserve the angles with the meridians. While the linear scale is equal in all directions around any point, thus preserving the angles and the shapes of small objects (which makes the projection
conformal), the Mercator projection distorts the size and shape of large objects, as the scale increases from the Equator to the poles, where it becomes infinite.