/kloc-The map of the world copied from the manuscript of13rd century is the first map depicting the coast of North America. In today's generation, we tend to think that maps are the product of rationality and science, but in fact, maps themselves have a mysterious side.
Ancient maps, especially those in unknown areas, often combine unscientific cosmology to express the relationship between man and the universe.
For example, the medieval "TO Map" portrayed Jerusalem as the center of the world and regarded the earth as the body of Jesus.
At this time, the map has no latitude and longitude network and scale, and it has lost its scientific and practical value.
On the contrary, Mediterranean navigation maps are very accurate.
1568, the Dutch cartographer Mercator founded the positive isometric cylindrical projection.
This projection draws the equiangular route into a straight line, so it is still used in chart drawing.
Extended data:
The earliest map of China:
1700 years ago, Pei Xiu, a native of the Western Jin Dynasty, completed 18 Regional Map of Gong Yu, which is the earliest historical atlas in China and the earliest recorded historical atlas in the world.
In the preface, he put forward six principles of surveying and mapping, namely the famous "six bodies of surveying and mapping", which laid a theoretical foundation for the traditional map of China (the map drawn by plane survey), so Pei Xiu was called the founder of traditional cartography in China.
Needham called him "the father of scientific cartography in China", and Ptolemy, a famous European cartographer in ancient Greece. He is two brilliant stars in the history of ancient cartography in the world.
"Drawing six bodies" is: the daily minute ratio (scale) used to measure the size of the area; The second is aiming (direction), which is used to determine the orientation of things everywhere; Three roads (distances) are used to determine the route of the road; Four-day competition (high take-off, take-off is a horizontal straight line distance); The fifth is the evil of the square (the square is tilted, and the tilt is the straight line distance), and the sixth is the straight line (the straight line is the straight line distance).
These six principles are summarized as the three elements of scale, direction and distance discussed in modern cartography, which shows that it is necessary to make scale, measure the direction between objects and get the horizontal straight line distance between objects.
Pei Xiu also pointed out the functions and relationships of the six bodies. He believes that the six bodies must be comprehensively used and referenced with each other, otherwise a map reflecting the actual terrain cannot be drawn correctly.
These mapping principles put forward by Pei Xiu are the basic scientific theories for drawing plane maps, which laid a scientific foundation for drawing maps. They have always influenced the traditional cartography in China before the Qing Dynasty.