More about maps
Sep. 14th, 2005 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mmcirvinSean Carroll points us to the Quincuncial Projection, invented by the philosopher, scientist and mathematician Charles S. Peirce.
I like the Quincuncial too; I think it accomplishes most of what the star projections and polyhedral projections like Buckminster Fuller's were getting at, only more elegantly.
The continents just happen to be arranged so that Peirce could get them all in low-distortion areas; I particularly like that it shows the northern coast of Eurasia curving the right way. I suppose Cahill's butterfly map on the polyhedral page uses the same idea with even less shape distortion, but it's less compact.
It's not very good if you're interested in oceans, though.
I like the Quincuncial too; I think it accomplishes most of what the star projections and polyhedral projections like Buckminster Fuller's were getting at, only more elegantly.
The continents just happen to be arranged so that Peirce could get them all in low-distortion areas; I particularly like that it shows the northern coast of Eurasia curving the right way. I suppose Cahill's butterfly map on the polyhedral page uses the same idea with even less shape distortion, but it's less compact.
It's not very good if you're interested in oceans, though.