The projection keeps parallels (circles of latitude) and meridians (lines of longitude) straight and perpendicular to each other, which was vital for 16th century navigators. But its main failing ...

For the unenlightened, "isometric" can be defined as a form of graphical projection - more specifically, an axonometric projection. It's a method of visually representing three-dimensional objects ...

The map you're familiar with, that pretty much everyone has a copy of somewhere, is called the Mercator Projection, which was first presented by cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. It works ...