noun
Usage: usually capitalized M
Etymology: after Gerhardus Mercator
: a map projection in which the meridians are drawn parallel to each other and the parallels of latitude are straight lines whose distance from each other increases with their distance from the equator so that at all places the degrees of latitude and longitude have to each other the same ratio as on the sphere itself with resultant apparent enlargement of the polar regions but with great value in navigation since a rhumb line on a Mercator map is always a straight line
[s]mercator.jpg[/s] [
Mercator projection
]