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100 Years to Solve an Integral (2020)
The integral of sec(x) is well known to any beginners calculus student. Yet this integral was once a major outstanding maths problem. It was first introduced...
Source code: link At each point along the rhumb line the angle $\theta$ with the meridian is 48.56° which corresponds to a bearing of 311°26’18’’ from Cape Town to New York. Mercator’s idea was to stretch out a cylindrical projection map in the North-South direction to preserve shapes and angles. In the past if you wanted to calculate sec(36°) you could draw a big triangle and physically measure the angle and distances with the ruler.
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