how was it possible in the past to draw an accurate map of a country without the technology we have now?

Question

how did people know england was this shape to that? without going into space, how was this done?

Answer 1

Well first of all, if you've ever taken a look at old maps, they really aren't very accurate. But in all seriousness, they actually used sextons to calculate their position in latitude and longitude based on the position of the stars over their heads. So mapmakers would go out and pick a spot, take a sexton reading, and say "ok at this point the ocean starts" etc. Then you just graph all your data points on the map.

Answer 2

They used tape measures and plumb lines and these have been around since before the Romans. Simply measure the distance in one direction and then another. You then measure the distance between the end of these two lines to make a triangle, then measure the angles. You repeat this process thousands of times to get area and shape. Using the plumb line to measure the angle up or down and a little maths to get the change in height. It's easy but takes a long time. The Romans used this method and I was told it took British engineers ten years to map even a small part of Nothern India, 2000 years later, using almost the same tools. It can be very acurate, they even managed to get the height of Everest within 100 feet of the actual height 100 years ago
I used this method to "map" the land owned by the local council a few years ago as a cheaper way than the expensive GPS system
Even now computer animators use triangles in the same way to do CGI models for movies

Answer 3

I asked the same question when I was in school. My teacher told me the chartmakers either walked the edge of the country, literally, drawing the map as they went or were in ships. They used instruments to measure distances, then walked the distance and mapped the terrain. After the outside of the country was done, they done the 'inside'. Hope this helps but the TV had a good programme about two yrs ago about this very question. Can't remember what channel tho. Good luck!

Answer 4

Survey instruments and compasses have been around for a long time. In fact, for centuries. First maps were pretty crude, but they were drawn and redrawn over the years and became more accurate slowly. By the middle of the 1800's they were getting pretty good at it. Check out wikipedia for more accurate information.

Answer 5

Measurements of latitude have been available for centuries used by sailors. Following Galileo's discovery of the moons of Jupiter a means of determining longitude by observing them (no I don't know how to do it) was worked out. While too complicated to use on ships it was used by surveyors on land to produce more accurate maps and a king of France (was it Louis XIV ?) said that he had lost more land to his surveyors than to his enemies following a survey of France.
This establishes a few fixed positions from which the triangulation so well described above can be carried out.

Answer 6

I have no idea but what a fantastic question.