I remember being told this in high school and being totally confused. My teacher told us that a standard map, or even a globe, is inaccurate. She explained why but I didn’t understand. Why is this?
In: Technology
Remove an orange peel all in one piece and lay it flat. Points on the surface of the peel are the same size and distance from each other as when they were on the sphere. But then stretch out the peel to make it rectangle (like a map). To do that, you have to stretch the peel. Points get farther from each other. Imagine doing that the surface of the Earth. Realize that where you choose to do the stretching has an impact on things’ relative size and relationship to each other.
Or do it in reverse. Take a sheet of paper draw a map on it, try to wrap it around a sphere-like object. Notice all the ways it doesn’t quite fit. Those are inaccuracies.
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