Why Are All Maps Inaccurate?

Understanding map projections, and why they are used in some of the most popular maps today

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

Most of us know the Earth is spherical, or more accurately an ellipsoid. The fact that we have to represent a curved 3-dimensional surface to a 2-dimensional flat piece of paper or screen means that some distortions are involved. This method of “projecting” the…