A new re-imagined version of a world map was recently published by a team of cartographers, and it just might be the most accurate two-dimensional map ever made.
What’s going on
The new map is essentially a flattened globe that displays the Northern Hemisphere on one side the Southern Hemisphere on the other with the equator running around its edges, resembling a vinyl record in shape, Phys.org reports.
J. Richard Gott, Robert Vanderbei and David Goldberg, a trio of map experts from Princeton and Drexel Universities, are responsible for the new design, according to Space.com.
What the new map looks like
Laura Geggel, a writer for Live Science, tweeted out an image of the new two-sided map on Feb. 23.
While the new circular map features a few spacial distortions, Space.com reports that it doesn’t downsize or enlarge the areas of certain oceans or landmasses like other two-dimensional maps. Phys.org adds that the new map features smaller distance errors than any other single-sided flat map.
According to EarthSky, Gott compares his team’s radical map-making approach to the way Dick Fosbury introduced a new high jumping technique to break records at the 1968 Olympics.
“We’re like Mr. Fosbury,” Gott said. “We’re doing this to break a record, to make the flat map with the least error possible. So, like him, we’re surprising folks. We’re proposing a radically different kind of map.” (via EarthSky)
Previous world maps
Joshua Sokol of The New York Times writes that no flat map of a round world can be perfectly accurate. The act of converting a three-dimensional object into something two-dimensional inevitably introduces distortions.
“If you have a Mercator projection on your classroom walls, for example, you may grow up thinking Greenland is the size of Africa (not even close) or Alaska looms larger than Mexico (also nope).” Sokol wrote. “This warped worldview might even bias you, subconsciously, to under-appraise most of the developing world.”
An alternative map known as the Peters projection was introduced to address the issues with the Mercator map that Sokol outlines, though the Peters map has its own distortions.
Printable versions of Gott, Goldberg and Vanderbei’s new circular map can be accessed in their new study “Flat Maps that improve on the Winkel Tripel.” All you’ll need are a pair of scissors and a glue stick.