NavList:

The next Royal Institute of Navigation webinar will take place on Wednesday 13^th January 2021 at 19.00 UTC (London Time) when RIN President Professor Terry Moore will present “An Evening with Map Projections”.  The event, which is open and free of charge to all (RIN Member or not) will be aimed at U3A (USA - Lifelong Learning Institute)  Level.  Please follow this link to register - https://rin.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1466045&group= . 

 Abstract

Did you know that there is no correct way to represent the surface of the earth on a flat map? Maps distort the shapes of land-masses or may vastly inflate the size of some areas - sometimes suggesting they are 500% bigger than they actually are! What’s even more confusing, is that there is a myriad of different geometrical and mathematical ways of projecting from the curved earth to the flat map - all that look entirely different to each other! Most of us are trusting consumers assuming that the cartographers are competent and truthful. Well, it depends whose truth you trust. What you see is actually just one person’s way of carrying out the maths to produce the map, often for a specific purpose or use - which in some cases might have distinctive political purposes, so achieving deception through distortion. Terry’s talk will give you a flavour of how and why we have what we have ranging from the 16th century to modern times. It will provide a background to the basic principles of map projections with a series of interesting insights and anecdotes.

DaveP