I’m struggling with writing lately. I try several different ways to get me going again. Today it was ‘play with maps’ day. I have AutoRealm and Campaign Cartographer 2 Pro (CC2). Right now, I am playing with CC2.
I decided to work on building the planet in Centric and wondered how many continents Earth has, how they fit together, and where their lines are drawn. I know, I should already know this, but I wasn’t sure I had it right. I went to Wikipedia and looked up continent. Depending on who you ask, there are either 4, 5, 6, or 7 continents on Earth.
But, what I found most interesting is the Dymaxion Map. When I first saw it, I thought it was some random output of fractals to make a planet like I am doing. Nope. It is a different version of looking at Earth. Wow.
Typical maps take the curves out of the earth and make flat maps. Some look like a sliced orange, others are just square-ish. The Dymaxion Map is neither.
I shrunk the image slightly from its original to make it fit this page. But look at it! If you didn’t know this was a map of Earth, would you have known? Amazing what happens when you take something so familiar and just turn it a slightly.
Just the land masses:
Just the continents:
I am still fascinated by these maps. Heck, it doesn’t take much to interest me in a map but this is way cool.
Links (all Wikipedia):
Images:
- Dymaxion map unfolded (the first one above)
Dymaxion map folded
Dymaxion map, no ocean (the second image above)
Dymaxion map, continents (third image above)
