This is a map:
Maps are pretty awesome, and are very useful for things like navigating in unfamiliar territory. What about different ways of visualising the map? Well a researcher at the University of Michigan managed to create an algorithm that can deform countries based on any number*. For example here is a map of the earth with each country weighted by its population:
But the really interesting stuff happens when we pick other numbers to examine. For example, the number of patents issued from a country:
You see that massive deep purple blob to the right of the map? That's Japan.
What about looking at the number of children (10-14) in the workforce:
Why hello thar Africa and Asia. We really appreciate all the cheap goods you're sending our way.
I would encourage everybody to take a look at some of the maps on the worldmapper.org site. It is sometimes really enlightning to look at the world in a different way.
late edit: Turns out I was a little unclear when describing what the maps show. In each one the total area of land on the earth is unchanged, but each country is given a size proportional to the quantity being measured
All images from SASI Group, Univ. Sheffield/M Newman, Univ. Michigan
*From the New Scientist article his method involves the
Maps are pretty awesome, and are very useful for things like navigating in unfamiliar territory. What about different ways of visualising the map? Well a researcher at the University of Michigan managed to create an algorithm that can deform countries based on any number*. For example here is a map of the earth with each country weighted by its population:
But the really interesting stuff happens when we pick other numbers to examine. For example, the number of patents issued from a country:
You see that massive deep purple blob to the right of the map? That's Japan.
What about looking at the number of children (10-14) in the workforce:
Why hello thar Africa and Asia. We really appreciate all the cheap goods you're sending our way.
I would encourage everybody to take a look at some of the maps on the worldmapper.org site. It is sometimes really enlightning to look at the world in a different way.
late edit: Turns out I was a little unclear when describing what the maps show. In each one the total area of land on the earth is unchanged, but each country is given a size proportional to the quantity being measured
All images from SASI Group, Univ. Sheffield/M Newman, Univ. Michigan
*From the New Scientist article his method involves the
physics of heat transfer, molecular mixing and a mathematical tool called the fast Fourier transform... sounds nice.
