[OSM-talk] New "Highways" view in OSM Inspector

[Martin Siegel]

Am 09.01.2010 11:36, schrieb John Smith:
> You could have at least answered me this, if OSM only stores lat/lon
> data how can projections be an issue exactly, and in turn how is it a
> problem how far apart nodes are on a way?
>    
Okay, look at this image [1]. It shows the shortest line between London 
and Los Angeles on the earth's surface. I think this is what you would 
call a straight line on the earth. As you can see this is *not* a 
straight line on the map. Now imagine someone wanted to draw a straight 
line between these two points and does this in an editor using the same 
projection as this map does. He would create a way with one node in 
London and one node in Los Angeles. In the editor there is a straight 
line. But now, when you would draw this line on the earth's surface it 
will never be the straight connection between London and LA; it will be 
a curve somewhere south of it.

Due to not being an expert I hope this is more or less correct.

Greatings: Martin Siegel

[1] http://www.v-flyer.com/bluemarblemap.aspx?PATH=lhr-lax