![]() There is no one way of projecting the curved surface of the Earth onto a flat sheet that does not cause some distortion, and there is no one projection that is suitable for all purposes for which people use maps. If we deform the peeled "skin" of our atlas globe in this way to make it flat we will end up changing the shape of continents and other items illustrated in our world map. If you’ve ever tried to flatten a deflated ball you know this is not possible to do without stretching the flexible material in some areas and compressing it in others. Now, let’s cut the material and try to flatten it. Imagine we make a globe out of a flexible material with a world map painted onto the material. ![]() For over two thousand years geographers have been inventing ways of using flat maps to show the curved surface of the Earth in ways that minimize such distortions. Geographic projections are a way of showing the curved surface of the Earth on a flat surface like a piece of paper or a computer monitor.įor over two thousand years educated people have known that the Earth is round and have realized as a matter of elementary geometry that any flat map showing the surface of our curved Earth will in some way change the shape of what it portrays. ![]() It is a good refresher for experienced users wishing to understand how Manifold deals with projections. This is the introductory topic on geographic projections for users new to GIS and mapping. ![]()
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