Walking in a straight line

by | Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Determining the shape of the earth is something I have written about previously. For instance, see this post on seeing the shape of the earth using eclipses. (A somewhat similar effect could be seen in my photo of the moon during a lunar eclipse). On the web, I found another way of computing the shape of the earth through studying the turbulent wake of a ship.

An interesting challenge that remains has to do with how we reconcile projections of the earth with the actual shape of the earth. For instance the Mercator projection distorts what are straight lines into curves and vice versa. Of course complicating all this is the fact that what we think of as straight lines needs to be reconfigured somewhat to meet the demands of a spherical surface i.e. the whole idea of a great circle.

I recently came across a very cool web site which uses Googlemaps to map a straight walk on the surface of the earth. Check out map.talleye.com

The moment you try this out you realize just how complex a process it is to go from the Mercator projection to understanding the same path on a sphere. This also reminded me of the maps of the earth that show the demarcation of day and night on its surface. Check it out at daylightmap.com.

[More information on the Mercator projection can be found here and on great circles here.]

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Creativity and Mindfulness at Work

Creativity and Mindfulness at Work

The next article in our series around mindfulness, creativity, technology and learning focuses on the work of Dr. Erik Dane. (This is part of a larger series that we been working on now for almost 10 years for the journal TechTrends). The first article set the stage...

Limp Kiss

Just Stumbled upon this: A Poem by Nichita Stãnescu Tell me, if I caught you one day and kissed the sole of your foot, wouldn't you limp a little then, afraid to crush my kiss?... more here

Slumdog night (and Rahman)

Slumdog rolled into the Oscars tonight. More important to me were the two Oscars for A. R. Rahman for original score and song. It is time that the world recognized his genius. Here is a cartoon by Kaladhar Bapu from his site Point Blank A.R. Rahman by Kaladhar Bapu

Evaluating creative learning environments: New instrument

Evaluating creative learning environments: New instrument

Note: There is a more recent, May 2023 post (Scaling up the SCALE instrument) that offers an update on other researchers who have utilized the instrument for their own research. Creativity is a key educational goal and essential 21st century skill. That said, much of...

Arthur C. Clarke, RIP

Arthur C. Clarke, popularizer of science and science fiction writer died today. He was 90. Clarke was one of my favorite authors growing up though I haven't read him in a while. I still remember the thrill I felt when I read the last sentence of "Rendezvous with Rama"...

EDUsummIT 2019: eBook released

EDUsummIT 2019: eBook released

EduSummIT is a global community of policy-makers, researchers, and educators working together to move education into the digital age. EDUsummIT has been convening every two years since 2009. In each case the participants focus on some significant theme relevant to...

TPACK moving in international circles

My friend, Martin Oliver, over at the London Knowledge Lab sent me the following link about a TPACK related publication that appeared in the International Journal of Education and Development Using Information and Communication Technology, aka IJEDUICT. (Boy, that's a...

TPACK (and friends) in T.H.E. Journal.

Matt Townsley sent me an email this morning informing me about a TPACK sighting in THE journal. Well... actually it's a journal whose title is THE journal! Does that make sense? Anyway, T.H.E. Journal (Transforming Education Through Technology) has an article by Dian...

The “O” in Obama

Steven Heller continues his series on political typography and branding with an interview with the design team that developed the now iconic symbol for the Obama campaign. Check out The "O" in Obama. Previous postings on this theme can be found here and here.

2 Comments

  1. sam

    Absolutely fascinating. I have just spent a very interesting 20 minutes on map.talleye.com. Have bookmarked this for future reference…

    Reply
  2. Jordan Walker

    Very intriguing! I notice the same thing when flying across the country on a 747, with the monitors that show you where you are relative to the ground.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *