Jakarta –
Representing a 3D world on a 2D map will always end with a number of problems and some compromises. No matter how accurately we try to create a map of the Earth, we end up with stretches of territory, squashed views of countries, or sections of the map that are cut off.
Creating a 2-dimensional map of the Earth that matches reality has been a complicated problem for a long time. Creating this map is also not an easy matter. Richard Gott, a researcher from Princeton University and his colleague academic David Goldber, a physics professor at Drexel University, researched other 2-dimensional maps and then ranked which ones were accurate enough.
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The system they created analyzes a variety of factors, including shape, distance, curvature distortion and more. There is no absolutely perfect flat map, but there is one that comes close, namely the Winkel Tripel, a map created in 1921 by German cartographer Oswald Winkel.
Quoted from Live ScienceFriday (26/1/2024) from research on other flat maps, a 2-dimensional map of the Earth was created which according to them is the closest to reality, although it is still not 100% perfect in some parts.
Unlike other flat maps, this map does not zoom in or out on certain areas of land or sea. For example, many two-dimensional maps depict the island of Greenland as almost the same size as Africa. In fact, Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland.
Another advantage is that this map is quite small. “This map can be printed back and forth the size of a magazine page,” said Gott, who led the research on making this map.
Got and his team had the idea to create a two-sided map, showing the Eastern and Western Hemispheres or the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. On the North-South Hemisphere map, the edge of the map is quite neatly at the equator, and both versions do not include boundary cuts.
“We have continuity at the equator. Africa and South America are wrapped around the edges, like sheets on a clothesline, but they are continuous,” he explains.
By using this map, we can measure the distance between two points more accurately than other maps, because there is less distance error. According to their scoring system, this is the flattest map of the Earth.
“Our map is actually more like a globe than other flat maps. The difference is, to see the whole world on the globe you have to rotate it, whereas to see the world on our new map, you just flip it,” he concluded.
Watch the video “Flat Earth Theory, Can You Believe It?”
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(rns/fay)
2024-01-26 15:38:17
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