• Home
  • Download PDF
  • Order CD-ROM
  • Order in Print
MERCATOR  PROJECTION - 14070_185
Universal Transverse Mercator Military Grid - 14070_187

Engineering Aid 1 - Advanced Structural engineering guide book
Page Navigation
  165    166    167    168    169  170  171    172    173    174    175  
a transverse Mercator projection, the cylinder is ro- tated 90 degrees from this position to bring it tangent to a meridian. Figure 9-13 shows the appearance of the meridians and parallels on the transverse Mercator world projection when the cylinder is flattened out. In this case, the cylinder was placed tangent to the meridian  running  through  0-degrees  and  180-degrees longitude. You can see that, in general, a transverse Mercator projection  has  less  distortion  than  a  Mercator  pro- jection does. You also can see that, unlike distortion on a Mercator projection, distortion on a transverse Mercator  increases  with  longitude  as  well  as  with latitude away from the meridian of tangency. This is indicated by the shaded areas shown in figure 9-13. they lie in the same latitude, they would have the same size on a Mercator projection. On the transverse Mercator projection, however, the area in the higher longitude  would  be  larger. The important thing to note about the transverse Mercator, however, is the fact that in any given area the distortion is about the same in all directions. It is this fact that makes the transverse Mercator the most feasible projection for use with the military grid ref- erence  system. A rhumb  line  is  a  curve  on  the  surface  of  a sphere that cuts all meridians at the same angle. A mathematical navigational device, developed to plot the Mercator-projected maps, makes the rhumb line a  straight  line  on  the  chart,  thus  preserving  the These  areas are the same size on the ground. Since same  angle  of  bearing  with  respect  to  the  intersected Figure 9-13.—Meridians and parallels on a transverse Mercator projection. 9-12







Western Governors University

Privacy Statement
Press Release
Contact

© Copyright Integrated Publishing, Inc.. All Rights Reserved. Design by Strategico.