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As I just joined my question is what is the distance in kilometers from the North Pole to the South Pole of the Open Street Map ?.I know as the crow flies the distance is 20,014 kilometers.

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asked 02 Mar '14, 00:02

leadermaster's gravatar image

leadermaster
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could you please specify your question? It is not clear to me. Do you mean on streets? Do you mean a direct line? How is that related to OSM?

(02 Mar '14, 00:05) aseerel4c26 ♦

OpenStreetMap aims to map the Earth. OpenStreetMap doesn't have its own North Pole or South Pole, it uses the same poles as the planet Earth. Therefore, the distance between the poles in OSM will be the same as it is in OSM, or else we have done something wrong.

There is a catch, however. When you try to display a map of a spherical body (Earth) on a flat surface (screen), you have to warp it somehow (unless you want to warp your screen). The rule that governs this warping is called a "projection". The projection commonly used for web maps, the "spherical Mercator" projection, can only process coordinates between approximately 85°S and 85°N. This means that the OSM map as you see it on openstreetmap.org does not show either of the poles. But that is just the display; it would be possible to use OSM data to draw different maps that do show the poles.

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answered 02 Mar '14, 00:37

Frederik%20Ramm's gravatar image

Frederik Ramm ♦
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It depends if the crow has a shovel.

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answered 02 Mar '14, 00:22

SomeoneElse's gravatar image

SomeoneElse ♦
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That will be a long way to dig, around 12,000 kilometres. And it will end up as a fried chicken half way through ;/

(02 Mar '14, 11:49) scai ♦

@scai: maybe the crow is clever and only would dig holes near the surface! Through mountains maybe. ;-)

(02 Mar '14, 12:26) aseerel4c26 ♦

Locations in OSM's database are specified by latitude and longitude based on WGS84 (thus the ellipsoid specified by WGS85). So the angular distance in OSM database between the north and south poles is 180°.

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answered 02 Mar '14, 01:46

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n76
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question asked: 02 Mar '14, 00:02

question was seen: 5,184 times

last updated: 02 Mar '14, 12:26

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum