![]() ![]() However, it still had distortions that could be improved upon. At the time, they discovered the Winkel Tripel projection, which dates back to 1921, was the most accurate map, with a Goldberg-Gott score of 4.563. The lower the score means the more accurate the map, so a globe would score 0.0. Using these criteria, they measured and scored numerous maps. “We came up with six: area, isotropy (whether a circle on the earth is a circle on the map), distance (whether distant points on the map are also distant on the earth), boundary (how many times ‘typical’ pairs of points are interrupted by an edge), flexion (how bent large great circle paths look), and skewness (how uneven those paths look).” Richard Gott, emeritus professor of astrophysics at Princeton University, in 2007 to identify the various ways that distortion in maps could be quantified. However, if one were to try to walk that straight line, they would actually wind up walking entirely through Canada instead of along the border. Goldberg uses the example of the border between the United States and Canada, which appears on maps as a straight line. “This shape distortion is very similar to the effects of taking a map of the earth and putting it on a flat piece of paper. “Gravitational lensing is an effect predicted by Einstein in which mass in the universe-galaxies and clusters of galaxies-warp space and distort the images of even more distant galaxies as we measure it in our telescopes,” he explains. ![]() While cartography might not immediately seem a likely project for a physicist, Goldberg identifies this work as a natural outgrowth of his own core research on gravitational lensing. Picture a vinyl record and flipping it over in your hands-the edge of the record would be the equator. Professor of Physics David Goldberg, PhD, is part of a team that tackled these questions and struck upon what is now the most accurate flat map of the world: a double-sided circle that features the Northern Hemisphere on one side and the Southern Hemisphere on the other. How do you represent the world globe on a flat surface? Can it be done without distorting the sizes of countries and continents and the distances between places? What would it take to make an accurate flat map? ![]()
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