Math Department (Thesis/2007-08)

The Mathematics of Navigation

Under the direction of: Brenda Johnson

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Mathematics is a fundamental tool in the development of navigational techniques. For example, without modern GPS systems, sailors for centuries relied on celestial navigation to determine their latitude and longitude when sailing on open water. When making a map of the world (which is essentially a function from a sphere to a plane) one is forced to distort certain features, such as area. A thesis on this topic could explore spherical trigonometry and methods of celestial navigation, or the mathematics of mapmaking, or the mathematics involved in modern electronic systems.

This topic is most suitable for a one-term thesis.

Math Department web pages Created: 25 Apr 2007 Last modified: 25 Apr 2007 Comments to: math@union.edu

Thesis Topics - B. Johnson Thesis Topics for 2007-2008 Thesis Topics - B. Johnson