Monday, August 25, 2008

Mercator

An interview with the famous mapmaker.

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Q: You are Gerardus Mercator and live in Duisburg?

Mercator: My name was Gheert Cremer and I was from the Netherlands.

Q: You were charged with heresy?

Mercator: I was distrusted because I traveled so much.

Q: You came to Duisburg for religious reasons?

Mercator: I may also have come to open a cartography business and teach mathematics.

Q: You have always been a mapmaker?

Mercator: No, I was originally an engraver of brass plates.

Q: Is your method of projecting the sphere onto a two dimensional map useful?

Mercator: It is easier to roll up a map than a sphere. But it is a distortion. Africa looks the same size as Greenland but Africa is actually fourteen times the size of Greenland.

__________

Voiceover


Mercator’s life was was not quite as it seemed. His maps were not quite as the world is. Maps are…. picturesque deceptions. Yes.

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