2 Matching Annotations
  1. Oct 2022
    1. maginary lines and arcs crisscrossing theEarth’s surface

      I noticed in the picture depicting meridians and arcs shows the world as a rounded shape, and there are simply two of them. Since one cannot visualize all the countries on Earth from these two views alone, it would be impossible to substitute these two circular pictures for a map. However, a 3rd or 4th view could complete the map. Is it necessary to have the entire world viewable from one perspective? If a person looked at all 3 or 4 "angles" of Earth, they could use the meridians and arcs to calculate distance and direction. Perhaps the main issue with projection is the idea that one has to see all the land masses at once? With these numbered grids, I would argue that we do not need to see them on one rectangle, but could instead utilize a multi-view map and still calculate distance and direction.

    2. imagining peeling an orange, and trying to flatten

      I really liked the symbolism used here. Even if one had trouble picturing just how distorted a map has to become in order to create a flat image from a round surface, I think we could all picture a peeled orange, and how little the peel would resemble the original shape if flattened out on the table. How could we create a rectangular peel from what was taken off? Right away, we're confronted with the difficulty map-makers experience when trying to convert the world onto a map. It's not a perfect analogy, but the comparison between the Earth's surface and an orange peel certainly helps us visualize the problem.