Word: maps
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Cartographers have long known that the images on maps often do not reflect the actual shapes and relative sizes of continents and seas. In the widely used map projection drawn in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, Greenland is exaggerated 16 times and appears to be bigger than South America, even though it is only about the size of Mexico. The National Geographic's Van der Grinten projection, which has been used for the past 66 years, shows Alaska blown up to five times its real size, making it appear the rough equivalent of Brazil, which is actually...
...carry around. And no matter what gimmick is used, drawing the surface of a sphere on a flat plane results in distortion. Anyone who tries to flatten the whole peel of an orange can imagine the difficulty. The features of a globe cannot be transferred accurately to a flat map. If the shapes of continents are correct, the sizes are wrong; a system that is accurate at the equator is hopeless at the poles...
...from circles to ovals, rectangles, hearts and butterflies, all of them flawed. Competing versions have triggered emotional controversies. "Cartographers since Ptolemy have wrestled with the problem," says Arthur Robinson, professor emeritus of geography at the University of Wisconsin, who devised the projection used in the Geographic Society's new map. "Alas, there is no perfect solution...
...projections with mathematics -- and nowadays the computer. But Robinson, who is considered the dean of U.S. cartographers, decided to take a different approach. "Mapmaking is as much an art form as a science," he argues. Thus he began by visualizing the way each country ought to look on a map, then turned to mathematics to delineate its shape. "What I really did," says Robinson, "was create a portrait of the earth...
There are still distortions in his map, both at the equator and at the poles, depending upon the distance from 38 degrees north or 38 degrees south, which he chose as his standard parallels. "Only at these latitudes are the size and shape relationships accurate, as they are on the globe," says Robinson. To convey a sense of roundness, the map has been given curved sides. The Geographic Society's new map, like its predecessor, is centered on Europe, in part because focusing on the U.S. would divide the Asian landmass. The result, declares Garver, is "the best balance available...