What you’re about to see is a new way of trying to represent our spherical planet as a flat image thanks to a new kind of projection that involves printing the map as a double-sided circle.
The newly created double-sided projections involve dividing a globe in two and printing the separate hemispheres on separate sides. While 3D maps are the most accurate maps to show the design of the earth’s surface, it is the 2D ones that actually represent a much more convenient way of presenting the planet.
A new map projection
A team of researchers from Princeton and Drexel Universities have reinvented our planet by creating a round, double-sided map, not unlike Earth, but also flat, in an attempt to give us a less distorted view of the world.
“We are proposing a radically different kind of map,” says J. Richard Gott, who designed the new extension with mathematician Robert Vanderbrei and physicist David Goldberg.
The idea was to generate a flat map with as little error as possible after creating a system to score existing maps about how many areas and distances had warped.
The most accurate flat map ever made
“We think it’s the most accurate flat map of the Earth yet,” the authors write on the preprint website arXiv.org before peer review.
Creating a map of the Earth is tricky, as the spherical shape tells us that it is mathematically impossible to precisely flatten it on a paper map . When you try it, all you get is distorted entire continents, mostly Africa.
The map combines the precision of a globe with the ease of a 2D map, by printing the map on two sides of a disk. It’s two-sided and round, like a vinyl record. Like many radical developments, it seems obvious in hindsight. Why not have a two-sided map showing both sides of the globe? In essence, it breaks the boundaries of two dimensions without losing any of the logistical comforts (warehousing and manufacturing) of a flat map.
The Mercator projection, popular on classroom walls and used as the basis for Google maps, is great for representing local shapes, but it distorts both surface areas near the north and south poles and polar regions that, they are simply cut off.
“Our map looks more like the globe than other flat maps ,” says Gott. “To see the whole globe, you have to rotate it; to see our entire new map, simply flip it over. “
It is perfect?
No. Yes, it is the most accurate to date, but it still doesn’t exactly represent the 100% correct distances on the globe.
“You can’t make everything perfect,” Gott clarifies. “A map that is good at one thing may not be good at representing other things.”
According to experts, they see it as the kind of map that could be included as an extra sheet in a magazine, or printed on cardboard or plastic and stored in boxes. We believe that it could be a useful tool to teach children about the world in a way that is much closer to reality.
Referencia: David M. Goldberg et al. Flexion and Skewness in Map Projections of the Earth, Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization (2007). DOI: 10.3138/carto.42.4.297
