1. Map Projections Apian World Map Projection
Cordiform World Map Projection

2. The Trouble with Maps…
The earth is spherical. (specifically, it is an ‘oblate ellipse’)
Because maps are flat, they are not able to portray some real-world features with perfect accuracy.
All maps are at least somewhat flawed representations of the real-world. We use the word “distortion” to describe these flaws.

3. Mercator Projection Greater distortion at the poles
Very little distortion at the equator
Greater distortion at the poles

4. The Mercator Projection
Greenland has an area of square kilometers.
Mexico has an area of square kilometers.
These countries are almost the same size!!
However, the mercator projection causes Greenland to appear many times larger than Mexico.
This is because, the Mercator projection distorts the size of land masses to an increasing extent as distance from the equator increases.
In other words, the further a country is from the equator, the more exaggerated it will appear in terms of size.

5. Projection Definition: noun,
The presentation of an image on a surface.
(cartography) A systematic representation of the surface of the earth.

6. Winkel-Tripel Projection

7. Winkel-Tripel Projection
In 1998, National Geographic adopted the Winkel Tripel projection because of its limited distortion.
Still, particularly at the poles, distortion of shape and size is evident.
Winkel-Tripel projection of Mars

8. Dymaxion Map

9. Dymaxion World Projection

10. Dymaxion Map
The dymaxion map is the least distorted world map projection available today.
As you can see, it is as if someone has “unwrapped” planet-earth and layed its pieces flat. Then, when those pieces are put together, the map reflects, as closely as possible, the reality of our planet’s characteristics.
ICOSAHEDRON (20-sided object)

11. Other Ways of ‘Projecting’
Ultimately, there are many ways of projecting information about the earth onto maps.
However, we cannot escape the problem of being unable to ‘perfectly’ represent 3-dimensional information (from the earth) on a 2-dimensional surface (maps).