Learn what a map projection is, why they are used and what impact they have on maps gis systems. It comes at the cost of making some continents and countries appear narrower than they are. The peters projection named after arno peters, also called the gallpeters projection, is a cartographic projection that was first described in 1855 by james gall. Learn more about the peters map video in this 4minute clip from the west wing. The projection, first created in 1999, frames the worlds physical components in a 2d rectangle, attempting to represent their relative sizes as accurately as.
Printable pdf world political map, in gallpeters projection full editable, adobe pdf, full vector, scalable, editable text format names, 72 mb zip all countries and disputed teritories with flags ans squares, map for design, printing, arts, projects, presentations, for architects, designers and builders, business, logistics, education. Map makers attempt to transfer the eartha round, spherical globeto flat paper. It was immediately and roundly condemned as being a copy of one by james gall, a nineteenthcentury evangelist. The challenge of any world map is to represent a round earth on a flat surface. Gallpeters map projection the power of cartography.
In the case of gallpeters, the continents in midlatitude and tropical areas are. Map projections map, department of the interior, u. Peters projection synonyms, peters projection pronunciation, peters projection translation, english dictionary definition of peters projection. The equal earth projection maintains the true relative sizes of the earths features and is visually pleasing. By contrast, the map known as the peters projection, which city authorities are now meting out to many of the citys classrooms, is a relative fledgling. The pdf below, has the mercator projection map, gallpeters map, and a third map of one laid on top of the other, the directions to cut up the playdoh, and the ratios based on 88,000 parts. The caption beneath the map accuses the mercator projection of intentionally enlarging northern areas where white people live and shrinking continents such as africa to diminish their importance. Boston students get a glimpse of a whole new world. Projections vary according to the particular purpose of the map. Pdf world maps are among the most widely used geomedia products for. When the historian arno peters came up with his projection, in the 1970s, he was unwittingly copying a much older map, the gall projection, which was invented by a scottish minister in the 1860s. Created by german historian arno peters and introduced to the world in 1974, the peters projection map has been adopted for use by the united nations. Therefore, peters argued, the mercator projection shows a eurocentric bias and harms the worlds perception of developing countries. Weve had many requests for the 11 x 17 placemat size peters map with uptodate boundaries and the country names left off.
This paper documents a famous cartographic controversy played out in the cartographic literature for more than fifteen years. Printable world political map 2017, extra detailed in peters projection full editable, adobe pdf, full vector, scalable, editable text format names, 76 mb zip all countries and disputed teritories with flags ans squares, map for design, printing, arts, projects, presentations, for architects, designers and builders, business, logistics, education. Choosing among them is an exercise in values clarification. James gall produced an orthographic map projection over the world usgs, 2010. Commonly used mercator map of the world gallpeters projection map philosophers, astronomers, historians, popes and mathematicians have all drawn global maps long before cartographers as such existed. It matches work by a scottish 19thcentury mapmaker, james gall, and is. Lesson on the different map projections teaching resources.
It asks pupils to answers questions, first with a mercator map and then using data. Printable world political map in gallpeters projection. When this map was first introduced by historian and cartographer dr. Pdf journey to the end of the world map how edges of world. Arno peters, a german historian and journalist, in 1973. Tv show parodies flat earth gailpeters projection world map. The peters projection world map is one of the most stimulating, and controversial, images of the world. The peters map site has an interesting short discussion of maps. The peters projection named after arno peters, also called the gall peters projection, is a cartographic projection that was first described in 1855 by james gall. This is its main difference with the mercator projection, which preserves the angles but not the areas. Of course, for the more ambitious students, i challenged them to figure out the fractions of each continent of the whole land mass using the ratios below. The peters projection is up on the wall of the socanth office for a reason. Equal earth map projection meets cartographic needs and. Odt is in transition with the business being passed to new owners in 2020.
About a week after these stories started to appear in the news, tom patterson, a cartographer who has since retired from the us national park service, began looking at equalarea projections to identify an alternative to gallpeters. Japanese architect hajime narukawa claims to have tackled a centuriesold problem how to draw an oblate spheroid earth on a flat plane. This is its main difference with the mercator projection, which preserves the angles. Map images can be copied freely for any nonprofit educational use.
The first englishversion of the map was published in 1983, and it continues to have. A map projection is any of many methods used in cartography mapmaking to represent the twodimensional curved surface of the earth or other body on a plane. The map on the lower left is appropriate to a small 640480 screen. We will taker a closer look at the popular mercator projection and examine how the projection. Arno peters created an equal area map, a new world map that dramatically improves the accuracy of how we see the. In reality, the mercator map was never intended to be used as a wall map and by the time peters started complaining about it, the mercator map was well on its way out of fashion anyway. Peters projection definition of peters projection by.
For the first time, odt is offering our clients, customers, and the general public a free version of the peters projection world map. Mercator illustrated opposite is one example, have tended to show countries incorrectly in. The hysteria among leading cartographers at the popularity of the peters projection, or the recent expressions of piety among western european and north american mapmakers following the russian admission that they had falsified their topographic maps to confuse the enemy give us a glimpse of how the game is played according to these rules. The 2001 peters map which odt published had revamped thumbnail panels at the bottom, only two of which were devoted to highlighting the flaws of the mercator projection there were 7 thumbnail panels berating the mercator on arno peters original map and odt softened the claims made on the explanatory panel published down the right side of the map. A projection showing accurate areas is called an equalarea map. This lesson covers the basic problems with the standard mercator projection map that is used all over the world.
The peters projection world map is an equal area projection. It shows how the scale of the mercator map is quite distorted near the poles and how the peters projection gives a more realistic view of the land. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. His major aim in developing this projection was to create a map on which the size of countries were accurately represented unlike on the mercator projection. The term projection here refers to any function defined on the earths surface and with values on the plane, and not necessarily a geometric projection. Now for the first time, odt is offering our clients, customers, and the general public a free version of the peters projection world map. This map is a 2007 edition and does not include updates like south sudan. Each has certain strengths and corresponding weaknesses.
The peters projection map uses a rectangular coordinate system that shows parallel lines of latitude and longitude. This projection is very similar to the projection created by prof. All the countries of the world are represented at true size and true proportion. Why map historians are annoyed with boston public schools. Many ways to see the world innovative mindexpanding world. Back to the wonderful, impractical world of swarthmore. Galls map projection is a so called equal area cylindrical projection. The gall peters projection is a rectangular map projection that maps all areas such that they have the correct sizes relative to each other. There are many types of map projections, and each one uses a different mathematical formula to transpose locations from the globe onto the map. He claims the above map, called the authagraph world map, achieves this task.
Peters projection is also an equal area cylindrical. When arno peters presented his world map and map projection to a wider public. Gallpeters projection is one specialization of equalarea cylindric or cylindrical equalarea projection. This map of earth is the most accurate ever produced, and. The map stretches the low latitudes less than gallpeters, but the poles are more distorted.
The peters world map is an equal area cylindrical projection with standard parallels at 45 degrees thus resulting in a distortion of shape which is. The peters projection map has been approached as a solution to the limited eurocentricity of the mercator because of its larger representation of the third world. In 1974, a german historian, arno peters, introduced what he called the peters projection to the cartographic community. A peters projection map is a map which attempts to draw the features of the earth with minimal area distortion. That means that one square inch anywhere on the map is an equal number of square miles. Map projections are the different techniques used by.
The peters projection is one specialization of a configurable equalarea map projection known as cylindrical equalarea projection and it was first introduced by the scottish james gall in 1855, then it was reinvented by the german historian and cartographer dr. Peters projection map, widely used in educational and. This projection is equivalent, that is to say, it preserves the proportion between the areas of the different zones of the earth. Its often used as an alternative to the gallpeters projection because its more visually satisfying. Cartographers appeared in the age of discovery, which developed into the age of european conquest and exploitation and took over the task of. However, the peters projection must be evaluated separately from its scientific accuracy. Pdf the equal earth map projection is a new equalarea pseudocylindrical. World political map 01 extra detailed in peters projection.
The peters map is an area accurate projection of the earths surface. Map projections explained a beginners guide youtube. With the traditional mercator map greenland and china look to be the same size but in reality china is almost 4 times larger. The equal area peters map has attracted more press coverage, both praise and criticism, than any other map in history. Original design by james gall, independently developed again by arno peters in 1967 and presented to the public in 1973. Boston schools ditch conventional world maps in favor of. The peters projection controversy and its aftermath.
The peters projection 1973, also called the gallpeters projection, is an equalarea projection, a way to show the round earth as a rectangle while keeping all the areas that are equal on earth equal on the map. While the peters projection map is superior in its portrayal of proportions and sizes, its importance goes far beyond questions of cartographic accuracy it challenges our view of the world. I created a vector world map with gallpeters projection using qgis and thought about including it in maptorian. The german historian arno peters published his projection in 1974. The projection is a particular example of the cylindrical equalarea projection with latitudes 45 north and south as the regions on the map that have no distortion. Like any equalarea projection, it achieves this goal by distorting most shapes. Since the globe is a sphere and a map is flat, some distortion is inevitable, but the peters projection map works to present bodies of. A critical analysis of arno peters atlas and a defense of the mercator projection. The equal earth map projection is a new equalarea pseudocylindrical projection for world maps. It became somewhat notorious in the 1970s and 1980s when exaggerated grandiose claims were made about it. The west wing hd lionel tribbey and his cricket bat and its surely to their credit duration. The peters map, the work of the german historian arno peters, provides a helpful corrective to the distortions of traditional maps.
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