ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly reviews the general notion of mappings where the domain is a portion of sphere. It studies mappings where the target is also a sphere, as well as the case where the target is a two-dimensional plane. The chapter defines the distinction between orientation-preserving and orientation reversing isometries of the sphere based on the number of reflections required to achieve the isometry. It discusses how best to represent a spherical surface on a flat map via a mapping from the sphere to a plane region by using cylindrical projection and stereographic projection of the sphere.
