Why design maps around curved lines?
When lines of latitude and longitude were first conceived, why was the decision made to have longitude lines converge at the poles. Why not have them as parallel “slices” similar to latitude? An advantage would be that a degree of longitude would be of equal number of miles regardless of its distance from the equator. Reply We live on a sphere (or near-sphere) and a sphere cannot be ruled using a square grid. You may start with a square grid, but as you get far from where you began, your squares grow unequal in dimensions, or collapse into lozenges. Besides, latitude and longitude are most easily derived for purposes of navigation: see the section http://www.phy6.org/stargaze/Snavigat.htm Before latitude and longitude were defined, astronomers probably defined declination and right ascension on the heavenly sphere. It makse sense there–it’s relatively easy to measure how far a star is from a pole, and the angle of rotation gives the second coordinate. I think that’s how Hipparchus cat
