Spatial data is similar, but it also includes numerical information that allows you to position it on earth. Flattening theĮarth of John P.Data usually comprises an array of numbers. I thank my colleagues,įriends, and family for encouragement and advice, especially Jason Dykes and Menno-Jan Kraak.įuruti gives much information on map projection. The British Cartographic Society 2008 and/or Jack van Wijk, TU/e.Īcknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge Michiel Wijers, Gives different results (thanks to David Mayes for this suggestion).Ĭontact For more information, see the paper or contact Where most cuts are through oceans or continents. By changing priorities, one can obtain maps One can take the shapes of the continents intoĪccount, when defining the cuts. Second, one can take a regular polyhedron, subdivide the The resulting images resemble familiar map First, one can cutĪlong parallels or meridians. Now, dependent on which mesh is used and which strategy for labeling the edges, different maps are obtained. The resulting maps have a large number of interrupts,īut are (almost) conformal and conserve areas. In step 2 and 3, this myriahedron isĬut open and unfolded.

The method The method used is the same for each type of myriahedral projection:Ī polyhedron with a very large number of faces. The article was awarded with the Henry Johns Award 2009, run by the British Cartographic Society with the support of Lovell Johns, for the best Cartographic JournalĬartographic Journal is published by Maney Publishing ( A story on myriahedral projections in New Scientist can be found here. Two minutes, no audio.Īnswer what these maps look like and how to generate them, see: To check this out, we developed myriahedral projections. Whole earth is shown? Of course you get interrupts, but does this Why not just take a map of a small part of the earth, which isĪlmost perfect, glue neighboring maps to it, and repeat this until the Problem is that you cannot do this perfectly, such that both the shapeĪnd size of the surface are depicted properly everywhere. To map the curved surface of the earth to a flat plane. For thousands of yearsĬartographers, mathematicians, and inventors have come up with methods Unfolding the Earth: Myriahedral Projections Unfolding the Earth: Myriahedral Projections Mapping the earth is a classic problem.

Flat earth map projection