This world map just won Japan's most prestigious design award
What differentiates this map from the one widely used today is that it depicts the size of land more accurately
You can also purchase the AuthaGraph World Map from Narukawa's website, which is W841mm, H594mm, full color and silver print and available in both English and Japanese Although the map appears to give each land mass and seas the space it deserves, it still is not perfect. PHOTO: AUTHAGRAPH
The traditional map of the world, known as the Mercator map, is the most generally accepted image of our planet but it is also considered highly inaccurate.
Gerardus Mercator created the traditional map but many believe it shows Antarctica and Greenland as greatly distorted. However, now a Japanese architect and artist, Hajime Narukawa, has been awarded Japan’s prestigious Good Design Award for designing a more accurate map of the world.
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To give a more accurate depiction of our world, Narukawa created a different method that aims to show land areas and seas accurately sized. “This rectangular world map called AuthaGraph World Map is made by equally dividing a spherical surface into 96 triangles, transferring it to a tetrahedron while maintaining areas proportions and unfolding it to be a rectangle,” Narukawa shared on his website AuthaGraph.
“The world map can be tiled in any direction without visible seams. From this map-tiling, a new world map with triangular, rectangular or parallelogram's outline can be framed out with various regions at its center.”
Narukawa told Spoon-Tamago that just a few years ago this map would not be so precise. This is because of climate change that has led to the melting of glaciers in Greenland and also due to territorial sea claims that have changed our world’s surface.
The map, which is W841mm, H594mm can be purchased online from AuthaGraph. It comes in full colour as well as silver print and is available in both English and Japanese. People can also print out and fold the map to create their own proportional paper globe.
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What differentiates this map from the one widely used today is that it depicts the size of land more accurately. For example, in the Mercator projection, North America looks at least as big, if not slightly larger, than Africa and Greenland also looks of comparable size. But in reality Africa is larger than both. In fact, you can fit North America into Africa and still have space for India, Argentina, Tunisia and some left over.
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Greenland, meanwhile, is 1/14th the size of the continent as can be seen in Gall-Peters equal projection, which provides the correct proportion of land mass to the continents. The map suggests that Scandinavian countries are larger than India, whereas in reality India is three times the size of all Scandinavian countries put together.
Although Authagraph map appears to give each land mass and seas the space it deserves, it still is not perfect. “The map need a further step to increase a number of subdivision for improving its accuracy to be officially called an area-equal map,” the Good Design Award description reads.
This article originally appeared on Daily Mail.
Gerardus Mercator created the traditional map but many believe it shows Antarctica and Greenland as greatly distorted. However, now a Japanese architect and artist, Hajime Narukawa, has been awarded Japan’s prestigious Good Design Award for designing a more accurate map of the world.
Lahore's Mughal-era Shahi Hammam wins UNESCO award
To give a more accurate depiction of our world, Narukawa created a different method that aims to show land areas and seas accurately sized. “This rectangular world map called AuthaGraph World Map is made by equally dividing a spherical surface into 96 triangles, transferring it to a tetrahedron while maintaining areas proportions and unfolding it to be a rectangle,” Narukawa shared on his website AuthaGraph.
“The world map can be tiled in any direction without visible seams. From this map-tiling, a new world map with triangular, rectangular or parallelogram's outline can be framed out with various regions at its center.”
Narukawa told Spoon-Tamago that just a few years ago this map would not be so precise. This is because of climate change that has led to the melting of glaciers in Greenland and also due to territorial sea claims that have changed our world’s surface.
The map, which is W841mm, H594mm can be purchased online from AuthaGraph. It comes in full colour as well as silver print and is available in both English and Japanese. People can also print out and fold the map to create their own proportional paper globe.
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What differentiates this map from the one widely used today is that it depicts the size of land more accurately. For example, in the Mercator projection, North America looks at least as big, if not slightly larger, than Africa and Greenland also looks of comparable size. But in reality Africa is larger than both. In fact, you can fit North America into Africa and still have space for India, Argentina, Tunisia and some left over.
Three astronauts from International Space Station make parachute landing
Greenland, meanwhile, is 1/14th the size of the continent as can be seen in Gall-Peters equal projection, which provides the correct proportion of land mass to the continents. The map suggests that Scandinavian countries are larger than India, whereas in reality India is three times the size of all Scandinavian countries put together.
Although Authagraph map appears to give each land mass and seas the space it deserves, it still is not perfect. “The map need a further step to increase a number of subdivision for improving its accuracy to be officially called an area-equal map,” the Good Design Award description reads.
This article originally appeared on Daily Mail.