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New map projections don’t make the Mercator wrong | Letter
UK NewsBusinessTechnology•September 25, 2026 at 5:31 PMNational

New map projections don’t make the Mercator wrong | Letter

By Guardian Staff•The Guardian - UK News

The transverse Mercator projection was created for European sailors – and it worked for their world, writes Paul HarwoodThe subject of projections is incredibly complicated and you did a good job of navigating the discussion (‘A map is never neutral’: meet the cartographers who took on centuries of western bias, 18 September).However, suggesting that transverse Mercator is inherently biased is not fair (if it is possible to be unfair to an equation) to both the projection and the cartographers. Continue reading...

The transverse Mercator projection was created for European sailors – and it worked for their world, writes Paul Harwood

The subject of projections is incredibly complicated and you did a good job of navigating the discussion (‘A map is never neutral’: meet the cartographers who took on centuries of western bias, 18 September).

However, suggesting that transverse Mercator is inherently biased is not fair (if it is possible to be unfair to an equation) to both the projection and the cartographers.

Continue reading...