newideal’s musings

I love it when my assumptions are turned upside-down and I discover new truths and new perspectives.

Let’s look at maps. Changing borders and names aside, most maps of the world’s land-masses look pretty similar, right? We all remember the old standby hanging on the classroom walls that we took for granted as absolute. Called a Mercator Projection map, it’s usually a U.S. or Euro-centered map created by “projecting” the round earth onto a flat surface. It’s easy to imagine how this map is created with a visual:

Picture a lightbulb inside the globe above. This light projects an image onto the inside of the tube. Now straighten out the tube to make a flat map and you have a Mercator projection map.

When first invented, this map system was extremely useful to sailors because straight lines on Mercator’s projection map are lines of constant compass bearing. It’s so useful that even today pilots and sailors use this projection map to navigate.

While the Mercator map is pretty accurate at displaying the shapes of land masses, what most people don’t realize is that this it is at the expense of relative size. “The mapmaker’s dilemma is that you cannot show both shape and size accurately. If you want a true shape for the land masses you will necessarily sacrifice proportionality, i.e., the relative sizes will be distorted.”

Indeed, the problem with our traditional projection map is that sizes get more distorted as you move further from the equator, with severe distortions near the poles. Cartographers refer to the inability to compare size on a Mercator projection as “the Greenland Problem.” Take a look at the map above — Greenland appears to be the same size as Africa, yet Africa’s land mass is actually fourteen times larger! In fact, Antarctica is often chopped off the bottom of a map because it appears much larger than it should. You can find an in-depth comparison of Mercator vs. Peters “equal-area” maps at odtmaps.

So what would a world map look like if sizes were proportionate? Let’s look at an equal-area map (a Peters map) compared to our traditional Mercator projection map:

hmmm….Africa is looking a bit bigger now, isn’t it? And why are the poles missing….no more wondering. Let’s put Africa in even more perspective:

There are many different kinds of maps, designed for different purposes. How about a map which shows relative populations in the year 2000?

or Births in 2000

or Often-Preventable Deaths

or Women’s Income

Or even Nuclear Waste!

These cool maps and many other can be found at worldmapper

Finally, let’s not forget that north=up on maps is just an agreed-upon convention to make map-reading easier. How about Australia on top of the world? Is there a reason you think this map is “wrong” or “invalid”?

The above are just a few examples of different kinds of maps — there are many more of course. Some interesting ones can be found at DifferentCartographical Map Projections and some good links and map resources at maps-gps-info.

Have fun opening up to new perspectives.

Current Mood: thoughtful