Inventions of Buckminster Fuller, Part 3: The Dymaxion Map
This one is somewhat simpler than Bucky's other innovations, but no less impressive.
Problem: When you project a round surface (such as the surface of the Earth) onto a flat map, there is a great deal of distortion. Fuller partially solved this by converting the globe to an icosahedron, which could then be cut into triangles and flattened out. It has less distortion of relative size of areas, most notably when compared to the Mercator projection; and less distortion of shapes of areas, notably when compared to the Gall-Peters projection. Also worth mention is how this projection can highlight both the relation of land masses and the connectedness of the oceans, depending on how it is disassembled, as you can see below.
Problem: When you project a round surface (such as the surface of the Earth) onto a flat map, there is a great deal of distortion. Fuller partially solved this by converting the globe to an icosahedron, which could then be cut into triangles and flattened out. It has less distortion of relative size of areas, most notably when compared to the Mercator projection; and less distortion of shapes of areas, notably when compared to the Gall-Peters projection. Also worth mention is how this projection can highlight both the relation of land masses and the connectedness of the oceans, depending on how it is disassembled, as you can see below.
Comments
When were globes invented?
Posted by kingmonkey in Athens, Ontario on 05/27/09 at 03:53 PM
I would guess that we still use the more deformed maps in textbooks because they're a lot easier to visualize North, South, East, and West than this map...
Posted by jswolf19 in Japan on 05/28/09 at 08:39 AM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Category: Education | Inventions | Science