The Stereographic Cylindrical Spherical Projection

The representation of a sphere, or spherical object such as the Earth, on a Euclidean plane has been of interest to mathematicians, cartographers, and navigators for centuries and, as a result, many different spherical projection methods have been developed. This presentation will explore the Stereographic Cylindrical Projection which involves antipodal points and a Euclidean plane tangent to the sphere along a great circle. A proof of the coordinate conversions from spherical to Euclidean space using this projection technique will be presented. Spherical properties, such as distance, angular measures, and area will be compared to the corresponding properties on the projection plane in order to measure distortions caused by the projection’s conversions.