| Mapping Toolbox | |
What Is a Projection?
It has long been established that the shape of the Earth resembles a sphere and not a flat surface. If the world were indeed flat, cartography would be a trivial matter and map projections would be quite unnecessary.
To create a two-dimensional representation of a curved surface such as the Earth, you must determine how to transform that surface to a plane. The method of this transformation is called a map projection, from the geometric methods that were traditionally used to construct maps. While many map projections no longer rely on physical projections, it is useful to think of map projections in geometric terms.
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