The world according to National Geographic.The world according to National Geographic The National Geographic Society National Geographic Society U.S. scientific society founded in 1888 in Washington, D.C., by a small group of eminent explorers and scientists “for the increase and diffusion of geographic knowledge. has traded in its time-worn world map for one that portrays the Earth more realistically. The society's new official map (left), developed by a geographer from the University of Wisconsin-Madison “University of Wisconsin” redirects here. For other uses, see University of Wisconsin (disambiguation). A public, land-grant institution, UW-Madison offers a wide spectrum of liberal arts studies, professional programs, and student activities. , more closely approximates the globe than does any other flat, continuous map of the world, says John B. Garver jr., chief cartographer for the society in Washington, D.C. Arthur H. Robinson Arthur H. Robinson (January 5, 1915 – October 19, 2004) was an American geographer and cartographer. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to American parents, but came to the United States, and spent much of his career in academia and research at the University of , creator of the newly adopted map, says trying to depict the world precisely in two dimensions--peeling the "skin" off the globe and forcing it to lie flat--proves mathematically impossible. But the Robinson map eliminates most of the high-latitude distortion of the Van der Grinten projection The van der Grinten projection is neither equal-area nor conformal. It fits the entire Earth into a circular shape, though the polar regions are subject to extreme distortion. The projection was proposed by Alphons J. (right), which National Geographic first selected for its world map in 1922. The distortion percentages shown above indicate how close to true size the Earth's land areas appear on each map. |
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