The world map you are in all probability intimate with is based on the Mercator expulsion , a revolutionary mode of representing the 3D world on a 2D map created by cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 . World - changing though the map was , there are a few strange detail on there – like a phantom island labeled " Rupes Nigra " ( or " black rock " ) in the middle of the North Pole .
Ancient mathematical function , to be fair to Mercator , lean to have an regalia of oddity on them , fromsea monsters and mermaidstophantom island you may not reachno count how much you sail at them . Mercator ’s island at the north pole is notable for advert to an older and frankly adorable belief ; that compasses were drawn towards the compass north due to a giant attracter place on the island .
The huge magnet , thought to be33 leagues(183 kilometers or 113 miles ) across , was picture at the center of Mercator ’s single-valued function , surround by whirlpools . Why not .
" In the midst of the four countries is a Whirl - pool , into which there empty these four indrawing Seas which divide the North , " Mercatorwrote in a 1577 varsity letter .
" And the piss rushes round and come down into the Earth just as if one were swarm it through a filter funnel shape . It is four degrees wide on every side of the Pole , that is to say eight degree totally . Except that right under the Pole there lie a barren Rock in the thick of the Sea . Its perimeter is almost 33 Gallic miles , and it is all of magnetic Stone . "
According to the letter , which tell early tales of the island from alost booktitled Inventio Fortunata ( " The Discovery of Fortunata " ) from 1360 , a priest who had seen the rock described it as high as the clouds . Another boater written about by Mercator claimed that the rock’n’roll could be seen from all around the island , and that the island was numb but for the gigantic metal stone .
" Nothing turn thereon , for there is not so much as a fistful of soil on it . "
As misunderstandings go , it ’s quite a precious idea . People were attempting to explain why compass pointed in the same way , with other explanation being that they were designate at the north star . The island continue to appear on European mapsinto the 17th centurybefore discovery put it to bed .
Despite the one oddity ( you put a giant magnetised rock on an imaginary bushed island at the north pole and all of a sudden that ’s all anyone need to talk about ) , the map is probably themost influential map in history .
It ’s acylindrical mapping projection , in which you invest the globe into a piston chamber and then project each point of the single-valued function onto a corresponding point on the cylinder . height ( imaginary vertical lines going through the Earth from the North to South celestial pole ) are mapped onto erect lines equally spaced aside on the map , and circles of latitude ( imaginary horizontal lines from East to West ) are mapped onto evenly spaced horizontal lines .
The Mercator projection is good for seafaring because it represent trend of constant bearing as straight segments , mean ship have to run correct for the curve of the Earth less frequently .
In cylindric single-valued function – as is the case with the Mercator project and the many advanced map based on it – areas around the equator stay roughly accurate . However , the further you move from the equator , the more distorted and inflated landmass become . Essentially , this is why Greenland appears gigantic and is represented as the same sizing as Africa , whenin fact it ’s 1/14 as big .
