Ever wondered how maps can twist and turn in surprising ways?
Euclidean space
Ever wondered how maps can twist and turn in surprising ways?
Imagine you're flying a drone over a city, trying to navigate from one skyscraper to another. The GPS shows a straight path, but the drone's path looks curved on the screen.
The drone's curved path shows us how maps can distort distances and angles, depending on the surface they're drawn on. This concept is known as the curvature of the surface.
Example
If you fly the drone straight across a flat park, the path looks straight. But if you fly it over a curved hill, the path looks curved on the screen.
Remember this
The curvature of the surface affects how straight lines and distances appear on maps.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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