A basic geography questions - Do all of the parallels and the meridians cross each other at right angles on both the globe and Mercator?
On a globe, parallels and meridians do not intersect at right angles; only the equator and the prime meridian intersect perpendicular to each other. On a Mercator projection map, the meridians appear as straight lines converging at the poles, while the parallels are equally spaced horizontally, giving the illusion that they intersect at right angles, when in reality that is not the case.