the world as we see it: maps and how we use them

The World As We See It:

Maps and How We Use Them

Historical Maps

220 B.C.E. - Present

Eratosthenes’ Map (220 B.C.E.)

Ptolemy’s Map (87 -150 CE)

Medieval Maps

al-Idrisi’s World Map (804 - 1456 C.E.)

South oriented at top

Anglo-Saxon (Cottonian) 900 C.E.

East Oriented at Top

Francesco Rosselli’s Map 1508

Leonardo da Vinci 1514

1900

World Political Map: April 2001

Types of Maps:

Comparing Projections

Mercator Map

Mercator: Good for: Navigation, shapes correct for small areas

Bad for: cannot represent poles; sizes are exaggerated the closer you get to poles

Looks like: rectangle

Purpose and Date: 1569; made to help sailors navigate

Significance: NEVER meant to be used as “THE” world map -- but it is!

Mollweide Map

Mollweide:

Good for: pleasing appearance; sizes and shapes in middle ok

Bad for: polar regions compressed

Looks like: ellipse

Date: Presented by Carl B. Mollweide (1774-1825) of Germany in 1805.

Significance:used to make homosoline and other maps

Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion World Map

Fuller's Dymaxion World Map

Good for: minimizes distortion of size and shape

Bad for: directions and spatial relationships odd and obscure

Looks like: ??

Purpose and Date: 1980+, to represent shapes accurately

Significance: made to help us recognize “we’re all astronauts aboard a little spaceship called earth”

Goode’s Homolosine Map

Goode’s Homosoline

Good for: shapes (except Asia) are well represented

Bad for: map & oceans are interrupted

Looks like: ??

Purpose and Date: 1923; to represent shapes correctly

Significance:easy to reposition and re-center

Peter’s Map

Peter’s Map

Good for: relative sizes of land accurate

Bad for: water sizes not accurate; shapes are distorted; no poles

Looks like: rectangle

Purpose and Date:1974; to correct previous apparent sizes of land masses

Significance: shows continents to true sizes -- Africa MUCH larger than Europe!

Robinson’s Map

Robinson

Good for: shapes fairly well done

Bad for: areas away from equator exaggerated; poles are lines

Looks like: oval, except poles are lines

Purpose and Date: 1963; Canada and USSR much more correct than previous maps

Significance: used as National Geographic map for decades

Azimuthal Equidistant

Azimuthal Equidistant

Good for: to know distances from center of map; shapes in center well-represented

Bad for: farther from the center, shapes very distorted; can be hard to orient

Looks like: circle

Purpose and Date: 1426? Earlier? To display true scale and direction through center

Significance: can be recentered for anywhere on earth

Equidistant Conic

Werner: Heart Shaped

Sinusoidal

Van der Grinten I

Cassini

MacArthur’s Corrective

McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World

At last, the first move has been made - the first step in the long overdue crusade to elevate our glorious but neglected nation from the gloomy depths of anonymity in the world power struggle to its rightful position -- towering over its northern neighbours, reigning splendidly at the helm of the universe.

Never again to suffer the perpetual onslaught of "downunder" jokes -- implications from Northern nations that the height of a country's prestige is determined by its equivalent spatial location on a conventional map of the world.

This map, a subtle but definite first step, corrects the situation. No longer will the South wallow in a pit of insignificance, carrying the North on its shoulders for little or no recognition of her efforts.

Finally, South emerges on top. Spread the word. Spread the map! South is superior. South dominates!

Long live AUSTRALIA -- RULER OF THE UNIVERSE!!

© 1979. Rex Publications. All rights reserved.