In 1931, the town of Rugby, N.D., erected a 15-foot stone monument declaring itself the “Geographical Center of North America.” For 85 years, the town has enjoyed a steady stream of tourists to the monument and local gift shops.

But recently, Rugby received an unwelcome challenge, from a bar about 100 miles south. “By our calculations, the center of North America is in Robinson, a couple feet outside Hanson’s Bar,” said Bill Bender, the owner of Hanson’s and mayor of Robinson, N.D., which has a population of 40. “We have as much claim to it as anybody does.”

Now the science of geography may prove them both wrong. When Peter Rogerson, a geography professor at the University at Buffalo, heard about the kerfuffle, he decided to weigh in. In 2015, he had published a new method for calculating geographic centers. Using this method, he found that the continental center was in a town called (wait for it) Center, N.D. By car, Center is 145 miles southwest of Rugby and 90 miles west of Robinson.

The novelty of Dr. Rogerson’s method is the map projection he used. Map projections transform Earth’s three-dimensional surface into two dimensions. The process always introduces some distortion, in shape, area, distance or direction. Perhaps the most well-known projection is the Mercator, which greatly distorts size, showing Greenland at roughly the same size as Africa, when Africa is 14 times as big. Another projection, the Mollweide, preserves size, but distorts shape, direction and distance.