Antique Collector - Antique Maps and Atlases |
One problem in creating maps is the simple reality that the surface of the Earth, a curved surface in three-dimensional space, must be represented in two dimensions as a flat surface. This necessarily entails some degree of distortion, which can be dealt with by utilizing projections that minimize distortion in certain areas. Furthermore, the Earth is not a regular sphere, but its shape is instead known as a geoid, which is a highly irregular.
Maps of all scales have traditionally been drawn and made by hand, but the recent advent and spread of computers has revolutionized cartography.
The Greenwich prime meridian became the international standard reference for cartographers in 1884.
During the 1900s, maps became more abundant due to improvements in printing and photography that made production cheaper and easier. Airplanes made it possible to photograph large areas at a time. Also, since the mid-1990s, the use of computers in map-making has helped to store, sort, and arrange data for mapping in order to create map projections.
