Mercator projection. Travel Tips

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Mercator projection. Travel Tips

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To build a world map in 1569, Gerard Mercator (Kremer) invented cylindrical projection. On the map, the meridians were represented as equally spaced vertical lines, and the parallels were represented as horizontal lines, the distance between which increased with distance from the equator. The specific distance between the parallels was calculated mathematically to maintain the correct relationship between latitude and longitude.

From the point of view of navigators and travelers, the indisputable advantage of the Mercator projection is that any constant course (for example, a compass course from one point to another) could be plotted on such a map as a straight line. A major drawback of the cylindrical projection is that territories at high latitudes (above 60°N and 60°S) are displayed with disproportionate magnification and distortion, and the circumpolar regions cannot be displayed at all. On the Mercator world map, Antarctica is depicted as an extended strip of land stretched along the southern edge of the map, and Greenland looks comparable in area to South America.

It is understandable. Mercator was not a polar explorer, but solved purely practical problems of navigation in the equatorial and middle latitudes to ensure trade in spices and other colonial goods.

Despite the existing shortcomings, the Mercator projection is widely used mainly in the preparation of geographical and navigational charts, which is explained by the simplicity of drawing bearings and courses on it in the form of straight lines.

The modern version of the Mercator projection, called transverse mercator projection, is often used when compiling maps of individual countries, as well as topographic maps for tourists and climbers. In this case, the cylindrical surface, on which the points of the earth's surface are projected, is in contact with the globe along the middle meridian of the map sheet. I take into account the fact that these maps cover a relatively small area of the earth's surface, the distortions present on these maps are negligible.

From all this it follows that I use maps with cylindrical projections, angles, bearings, courses can be taken directly from the map, and the distances between points should be calculated using the values of the longitude and latitude of the start and end points of the path taken from the map.

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Earth's composition differs from potentially habitable planets 26.09.2015

Scientists from the University of Porto (Portugal) said that the Earth is an exception among potentially habitable planets in our galaxy.

The researchers drew attention to the stars, the mass and radius of which are almost the same as the sun, and in their habitable zone there are planets where water is present in the form of a liquid. Iron and other metals in the composition of such stars turned out to be less than that of the luminaries, around which only uninhabited planets circulate.

As a result, scientists concluded that because the planets are similar in chemical composition to their stars, celestial bodies from the habitable zone usually contain less metals than in the bowels of the Earth or the Sun. As a rule, massive bodies with a gaseous envelope rotate around iron-rich stars.

Differences in chemical composition between the Earth and most planets in the habitable zone, the researchers explain the fact that the latter, most likely, much older. Iron and other heavy elements are formed in the explosions of luminaries and disperse through interstellar space.

When the Milky Way was younger, there were fewer such explosions, as well as iron in ancient habitable exoplanets. If the existence of inhabited planets is more characteristic of stars poor in metals, then at the present stage of the life of a galaxy they are formed much less frequently.

However, stars exist for a long time and ancient planets with favorable conditions for the emergence of life are still present. The Earth, however, is an exception among potentially habitable planets in our galaxy, radically different from them in its chemical composition.

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