Which of the following describes the Mercator projection's properties and its use in navigation?

• A. It preserves distances accurately at all latitudes.
• B. It enlarges areas near the poles while preserving angle and direction.
• C. It maintains area equality but distorts shapes.
• D. It shifts all continents toward the equator.

Answer: (B)

The Mercator projection is designed to keep angles and directions accurate on small scales, which is why it’s so useful for navigation. Because it preserves local shapes, a line that follows a constant compass bearing (a rhumb line) appears as a straight line on the map, making plotting courses straightforward. But this comes with a trade-off: areas are not preserved. As you move toward higher latitudes, the map inflates the size of landmasses, especially near the poles, so polar regions look much larger than they are. Distances and areas away from the equator aren’t true to scale either, and the projection does not center on keeping areas equal or shifting continents toward the equator. So the description that polar areas are enlarged while angle and direction are preserved best captures its properties and its use in navigation.