Wired.com is starting up a series on various map projections
Here's a link to the first: Mercator
As someone just really starting to delve into the buts and bolts of maps (I've always loved them, but now I'm trying to make and better understand them), this quote really hit home: "Staying true to size and shape is great if you are sitting in your study, looking at the world from afar. But if you’re trying to explore, an idealized map is next to useless. Those proper shapes and sizes come at the expense of angularity, which means a ship’s plotted course gets twisted unless it’s plotted directly east to west. If they used elliptical projections, navigators had to constantly recalculate their bearing. But the Age of Exploration was well underway. Leave the works of art to the Renaissance. These sailors needed a tool."
As someone just really starting to delve into the buts and bolts of maps (I've always loved them, but now I'm trying to make and better understand them), this quote really hit home: "Staying true to size and shape is great if you are sitting in your study, looking at the world from afar. But if you’re trying to explore, an idealized map is next to useless. Those proper shapes and sizes come at the expense of angularity, which means a ship’s plotted course gets twisted unless it’s plotted directly east to west. If they used elliptical projections, navigators had to constantly recalculate their bearing. But the Age of Exploration was well underway. Leave the works of art to the Renaissance. These sailors needed a tool."