Straight vs Curve : Understanding Distances
Today we rolled out some fixes to the site as well as a couple little side simple tools utilizing Scribble Maps. The first is a distance calculator and the other is an area calculator . So we thought we would take a little bit of time and explain some important considerations when drawing lines on maps over great distances. Particularly what is the difference between a straight line, which is a Rhumb line on Google Maps, and a curved line. There is a common misconception that if you were to walk in one direction without wavering and then drew a line of all the places you stopped it would appear as a curve on a map. While it is true you would actually walk in a curve, on a Google Map which uses what is called a Mercator projection, the line would actually be straight. This is because the projection Google uses stretches the latitude (y-axis) to make travelling in a straight line appear as a straight line on a map. Travelling in one direction on a globe On a Google Map