World Population Cube - Views of the World Last November’s theme of the Super Science Saturday at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History was Planet Earth. As part of the activities I contributed a map cube which I created a few years ago.Cubic globes are not a new idea. They put a nice twist to showing just a simple map, and more importantly, they allow for some activity which get the kids involved just as much as adults. A cube is much less work than creating a spheric version of Earth, and (as said by Carlos Furuti on his online cube globe collection) the cube is an ideal introduction to folding one’s own pseudoglobes. (view larger image – download as pdf) Now go, print out this template, craft your own cube, take a photo of it and post it on Twitter, Instagram and/or Facebook with the hashtag #mapcube. Meanwhile, here are some more impressions from the Super Science Saturday event (courtesy of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History): The content on this page has been created by Benjamin D.
This map of Earth is the most accurate ever produced, and it looks completely different | indy100 Japanese architect Hajime Narukawa claims to have tackled a centuries-old problem - how to draw an oblate spheroid Earth on a flat plane. He claims the above map, called the AuthaGraph World Map, achieves this task. The projection, first created in 1999, frames the world's physical components in a 2D rectangle, attempting to represent their relative sizes as accurately as possible. It does so by dividing the world into 96 triangles, making it a tetrahedron, then unfolding it to become a rectangle. Unlike the traditional Mercator map, made in the 16th century, which overstates the size of northern areas like Greenland and minimizes that of central areas like Africa, the AuthaGraph World Map retains parity of area to a 3D projection. The projection recently won the 2016 good design grand award in Japan, an awards evening founded in 1957 by the Japanese ministry of international trade and industry. Narukawa also gave a Ted talk on his projection in 2011:
More Accurate World Map Wins Prestigious Design Award The most accurate map you'll ever see. You probably won't like it. Authagraph You probably don’t realize it, but virtually every world map you’ve ever seen is wrong. The world maps we’re all used to operate off of the Mercator projection, a cartographic technique developed by Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. To correct these distortions, Tokyo-based architect and artist Hajime Narukawa created the AuthaGraph map over the course of several years using a complex process that essentially amounts to taking the globe (more accurate than any Mercator map) and flattening it out: Narukawa’s process indeed succeeded in creating a map that no longer shrinks Africa, enlarges Antarctica, or minimizes the vastness of the Pacific — and the list goes on. In recognition of Narukawa’s success, he’s now beaten out thousands of other contestants to receive this year’s Grand Award from Japan’s Good Design Awards, and his map is featured in textbooks for Japanese schoolchildren.
Handy maps | Oxford Education Blog Like most geography departments across the UK, our Year 7s complete a map skills unit within months of arriving at the school. This year, we made it as engaging as possible, drawing lines of latitude and longitude drawn in chalk on the playground, bringing out OS maps of their local area, and using GIS to bring maps to life. However, the end of the unit saw a need to reflect on what they’d learnt and to provide an opportunity for independent work. I’d seen the idea of the ‘Hand-Drawn OS Map’ on Twitter and thought it was worth a try! The instructions were simple: The students had 1 hour to create an OS map of their hand. They needed to draw round their hand and then get thinking ̶ how could they recreate an OS map in this space that was as creative as possible? The Year 7s loved the opportunity to be imaginative and inventive ̶ each map had an individual and unique slant.
Harvey Maps Romer - Above and Beyond At Above and Beyond we only sell quality goods that we would be happy to use ourselves, which in many cases we do. We also thoroughly inspect everything and take great care when packaging your goods to ensure that they arrive in perfect condition. However, sometimes accidents happen or perhaps an item may not fit quite as expected. Our 90 Days Return Policy As defined by Distance Selling Regulations the standard "cooling off period" is 7 working days after the date of receipt of goods. You must send the goods back to our contact address at your own cost (unless we delivered the item to you in error or the item is damaged or defective) as soon as possible once you have cancelled the contract. Exceptions You will not have any right to cancel a purchase for the supply of: Situation specific returns information can be found below. Returns Information Unwanted Items and Exchanges Please read our 90 days return policy above and the following stipulations: Incorrect Items Items Damaged In Transit
Beginners guide to using a compass | OS GetOutside Even with a GPS in your phone, knowing how to navigate using a map and a compass is a great life skill. Here's a step-by-step guide to using compass bearings. We're going to assume you are working with the most common type of compass used for navigation, the baseplate (or orienteering) compass, and know what the various bit are called. If not have a quick look at our guide to the compass first. Step 1: Line up your points To start with you need to know where you are on the map (point A) and where you want to go to (point B). Get the map flat - a stiff map case, flat rock or your knee works. Line up point A and B with either the side of your compass or one of the black lines running down the base plate, making sure that the direction of travel arrow is point in the direction you want to go in (so towards point B). A compass with a larger base is useful here for covering longer distances, but you can use a straight edge with a smaller compass. For the moment, don't worry about the north arrow.
huffingtonpost Word Map This experiment brings together the power of Google Translate and the collective knowledge of Wikipedia to put into context the relationship between language and geographical space. Please let us know if you have any suggestions. Note that not all languages are currently supported by Google Translate. To browse, just zoom in/out, pan around and click on the word to learn more. Enjoy!
This Is What A World Map Looks Like When Scaled According To Population Size Where in the world did Australia go?! A new cartogram by Redditer TeaDranks rescales the world’s countries according to population size instead of geographic area. Reconstructing maps based on different variables can be a powerful tool for understanding the world we live in. In this case, certain regions almost disappear from the map while others expand considerably; Canada transforms into a thin, jagged line while India now takes up a massive amount of space. Other interesting tidbits: North Korea has a larger population than Australia, with 25.1 million people compared to 23.7 million, respectively. Denmark has almost disappeared from the map compared to the mighty space it usually takes up, and China now dwarfs Russia instead of vice versa. “I was inspired by this map which is now ten years old,” said TeaDranks. It is important to note that even modern world maps distort the Earth. To check out a high-resolution version of the map, click here. Credit: TeaDranks / Reddit