Princeton professors J. Richard Gott and Robert Vanderbei worked with Drexel professor David Goldberg to create a revolutionary new map: a two-sided disk that can slip inside a textbook or held in your hand. It provides more accurate distances than any existing flat map, while keeping visual distortions at a minimum.
Credit: Map by J. Richard Gott, David Goldberg, and Robert Vanderbei
Princeton astrophysicists re-imagine world map, designing a less distorted, ‘radically different’ way to see the world
Liz Fuller-Wright, Office of Communications Feb. 15, 2021
How do you flatten a sphere?
For centuries, mapmakers have agonized over how to accurately display our round planet on anything other than a globe.
Now, a fundamental re-imagining of how maps can work has resulted in the most accurate flat map ever made, from a trio of map experts: J. Richard Gott, an emeritus professor of astrophysics at Princeton and creator of a logarithmic map of the universe once described as “arguably the most mind-bending map to date”; Robert Vanderbei, a professor of operations research and financial engineering who created the “Purple America” map of election results; and David Goldberg, a professor of physics at Drexel University.