Chapter 9 Willebrord Snell and Triangulation 1600 CE

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Modern mapmakers use specialized equipment to take measurements and mathematics to figure out what those measurements mean. We have maps that cover nearly every part of the world, including under the oceans, across mountains, and over the polar ice caps. Perhaps the most important foundation upon which surveying and mapmaking stands is the mathematical discipline of trigonometry.

Measuring Long Distances by Using Triangles

The burghers of Leiden, Holland, must have wondered what that odd professor from the university was up to. Throughout the years 1614 and 1615, they saw Willebrord ...

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