“Relative Accuracy,” by Peter Turchi

Faculty member Peter Turchi‘s “Relative Accuracy” recently aired on Engines of Our Ingenuity. Read an excerpt bellow:

“Today, we’ll question the virtue of accuracy. The University of Houston presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

Given a choice between an accurate map and a distorted one, most of us would choose accuracy. After all, accuracy is good, right?

Well — it depends. “Accuracy,” we need to remember, is relative.

One of the great reminders of that fact is a map that’s been used around the world for nearly a century.

The first underground railway opened in 1863. For 70 years, the map of the London Underground, or Tube, was simply superimposed over a road map. As the Tube expanded, that map grew increasingly difficult to read. The names of the stations in the center of the city were clustered together; the stations at the outskirts were so far apart that the map was unwieldy. The depiction of the lines and stations was accurate, but confusing…”

Continue reading “Relative Accuracy” here: https://uh.edu/engines/epi2985.htm?fbclid=IwAR3FChYED4VnsseAbnz7ck_uZJeUcUfFtljdGBts36Hgj8mAkGSg7_nwYFY