When the center point is the north pole, φ 0 equals π / 2 {\displaystyle \pi /2} and λ 0 is arbitrary, so it is most convenient to assign it the value of 0. Some social media users are saying that Alexander Gleason’s 19th Century “New Standard Map of the World” is proof that the earth is flat and that Antarctica is not a continent but an ice ring that circles the earth’s edges. A thin box could hold flat double-sided maps of all the major objects in the solar system, or a stack of Earth maps giving physical and political data.

Map Gleason 1892 World Time Calculator Flat Earth Large Wall Map Gleason 1892 World Time Calculator Flat Earth Large Wall

From the map’s patent, we know the author was aware and in full knowledge that the map was just a projection of the spherical Earth, contradictory to the claims in his book.When that occurs in science, one often needs a breakthrough, some out-of-the-box thinking, to make any radical progress. One side of the map shows the Northern Hemisphere, the other side shows the Southern Hemisphere, with the equator running around the edge. Before photographic proof was possible, Eratosthenes measured the earth’s shadow cast by a stick during the summer solstice to calculate the circumference of the earth ( here. Richard Feynman once said that in physics when we are stuck, when all the old methods don’t work, then the new trick, the new method that is going to work, is going to look very different from anything we have seen before. A useful application for this type of projection is a polar projection which shows all meridians (lines of longitude) as straight, with distances from the pole represented correctly.

Fact Check-Alexander Gleason’s map of the world does not

It has straight pole lines top and bottom with bulging left and right margins marking its 180 degree boundary cut in the middle of the Pacific.

The distance from the center point to another projected point ρ is the arc length along a great circle between them on the globe. Distances between cities are measured by simply stretching a string between them; if they are in opposite hemispheres, the string simply stretches across the equator at the edge of the map. All points along a given azimuth will project along a straight line from the center, and the angle θ that the line subtends from the vertical is the azimuth angle. An interactive Java Applet to study the metric deformations of the Azimuthal Equidistant Projection.