Second investigation

In our second investigation, we tried to open our minds and try to think in other possibilities that our object could be. We asked our teacher and he told us that it could be a box with utensils to draw technical drawing.

Technical drawing is an exact way of communicating data about the shape and size of objects. It should be as accurate as possible. 

So, we thought that maybe these instruments were used to draw maps. Looking at this image, the object that we have circled in red might be a compass. Compasses are used to draw circles, so they are necessary for technical drawing. 

The first thing that we thought when we saw the "compass" (we write this word between quotation marks because we are not 100% certain that it is a compass) is the world.  After a few researches, we found out that the word used to say "to draw maps" is cartography.

Cartography

After reading the definition of technical drawing, you can suppose that cartography is a way of technical drawing.

The reason why we draw maps is so that everyone knows the exact shape of the Earth, each ocean, continent, country, sea and the size of everything so that for example, sailors can know how to guide themselves and do not hit with land because the map was not drawn accurately. However, maps are not only used for people that travel (like pilots or sailors), they can also be used by weathermen to know where will the next storm hit, others can be used to help people study mountains and oceans...

The first map

• The first known map belongs to the Babilonian Empire and is commonly dated to the 6th century BC.
• It shows our world form the perspective of Babylonia. The map was incised on a clay tablet.

• It was discovered in the south of Iraq and was published in 1899 and nowadays can be found at the British Museum.

Changes in cartography

These two images show how cartography changed before people know the existance of the new continent of America (up) and  after (down) its discovery. The map we can see on the right is almost perfect. We can see Australia (which is a country that previous maps do not show) and the shapes and sizes of the continents are more accurate than previous ones.


Cartography nowadays

Since the mid 1900s, technology has helped proffesional cartographers to produce maps much more accurate. Modern computers can store and transmit huge amounts of mapping data and then with those data produce maps using sophisticated machines. There have been produced advanced cameras that can transmit data from outer space and mapsp which show nearly any place in Earth.

Traditional map-making involved ground observation. Nowadays, ground observation is used mainly to verify details of maps using more sophisticated techniques.