Robinson projection - wikipedia Robinson projection Robinson projection of the world The Robinson projection with Tissot 's indicatrix of deformation The Robinson projection is a map projection of a world map which shows the entire world at once. It was specifically created in an attempt to find a good compromise to the problem of readily showing the whole globe as a flat image. The Robinson projection was devised by Arthur H. Robinson in 1963 in response to an appeal from the Rand McNally company, which has used the projection in general purpose world maps since that time. Robinson published details of the projection 's construction in 1974. The National Geographic Society ( NGS ) began using the Robinson projection for general purpose world maps in 1988, replacing the Van der Grinten projection. In 1998 NGS abandoned the Robinson projection for that use in favor of the Winkel tripel projection, as the latter `` reduces the distortion of land masses as they near the poles ''. Contents 1 Strengths and weaknesses 2 Formulation 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links Strengths and weaknesses The Robinson projection is neither equal - area nor conformal, abandoning both for a compromise. The creator felt this produced a better overall view than could be achieved by adhering to either. The meridians curve gently, avoiding extremes, but thereby stretch the poles into long lines instead of leaving them as points. Hence, distortion close to the poles is severe, but quickly declines to moderate levels moving away from them. The straight parallels imply severe angular distortion at the high latitudes toward the outer edges of the map, a fault inherent in any pseudocylindrical projection. However, at the time it was developed, the projection effectively met Rand McNally 's goal to produce appealing depictions of the entire world. I decided to go about it backwards.... I started with a kind of artistic approach. I visualized the best - looking shapes and sizes. I worked with the variables until it got to the point where, if I changed one of them, it did n't get any better. Then I figured out the mathematical formula to produce that effect. Most mapmakers start with the mathematics. -- 1988 NY Times article Formulation The projection is defined by the table : Latitude PLEN PDFE 00 1.0000 0.0000 05 0.9986 0.0620 10 0.9954 0.1240 15 0.9900 0.1860 20 0.9822 0.2480 25 0.9730 0.3100 30 0.9600 0.3720 35 0.9427 0.4340 40 0.9216 0.4958 45 0.8962 0.5571 50 0.8679 0.6176 55 0.8350 0.6769 60 0.7986 0.7346 65 0.7597 0.7903 70 0.7186 0.8435 75 0.6732 0.8936 80 0.6213 0.9394 85 0.5722 0.9761 90 0.5322 1.0000 The table is indexed by latitude at 5 degree intervals ; intermediate values are calculated using interpolation. Robinson did not specify any particular interpolation method, but it is reported that he used Aitken interpolation himself. The PLEN column is the length of the parallel of latitude, and the PDFE column is multiplied by 0.5072 to obtain the distance of that parallel from the equator. Meridians of longitude are equally spaced on each parallel of latitude. See also Atlas portal List of map projections Winkel Tripel -- projection currently used by the National Geographic. Kavrayskiy VII References ^ Jump up to : John Noble Wilford ( October 25, 1988 ). `` The Impossible Quest for the Perfect Map ''. The New York Times. Retrieved 1 May 2012. Jump up ^ Snyder, John P. ( 1993 ). Flattening the Earth : 2000 Years of Map Projections. University of Chicago Press. p. 214. ISBN 0226767469. Jump up ^ `` NG Maps Print Collection - World Political Map ( Bright Colored ) ''. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 1 October 2013. This latest world map... features the Winkel Tripel projection to reduce the distortion of land masses as they near the poles. Jump up ^ `` Selecting a Map Projection - National Geographic Education ''. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 1 October 2013. Jump up ^ Myrna Oliver ( November 17, 2004 ). `` Arthur H. Robinson, 89 ; Cartographer Hailed for Map 's Elliptical Design ''. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 May 2012. Jump up ^ New York Times News Service ( November 16, 2004 ). `` Arthur H. Robinson, 89 Geographer improved world map ''. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 1 May 2012. Jump up ^ Richardson, R.T.. Area deformation on the Robinson projection. The American Cartographer, 1989, 16, 294 - 296. Further reading Arthur H. Robinson ( 1974 ). `` A New Map Projection : Its Development and Characteristics ''. In : International Yearbook of Cartography. Vol 14, 1974, pp. 145 -- 155. John B. Garver Jr. ( 1988 ). `` New Perspective on the World ''. In : National Geographic, December 1988, pp. 911 -- 913. John P. Snyder ( 1993 ). Flattening The Earth -- 2000 Years of Map Projections, The University of Chicago Press. pp. 214 -- 216. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maps with Robinson projection. Table of examples and properties of all common projections, from radicalcartography.net An interactive Java Applet to study the metric deformations of the Robinson Projection. Numerical evaluation of the Robinson projection, from Cartography and Geographic Information Science, April, 2004 by Cengizhan Ipbuker Map projection History List Portal By surface Cylindrical Mercator - conformal Gauss -- Krüger Transverse Mercator Equal - area Balthasart Behrmann Gall -- Peters Hobo -- Dyer Lambert Smyth equal - surface Trystan Edwards Cassini Central Equirectangular Gall stereographic Miller Space - oblique Mercator Web Mercator Pseudocylindrical Eckert II Eckert IV Eckert VI Goode homolosine Kavrayskiy VII Mollweide Sinusoidal Tobler hyperelliptical Wagner VI Conical Albers Equidistant Lambert conformal Pseudoconical Bonne Bottomley Polyconic Werner Azimuthal ( planar ) General perspective Gnomonic Orthographic Stereographic Equidistant Lambert equal - area Pseudoazimuthal Aitoff Hammer Wiechel Winkel tripel By metric Conformal Adams hemisphere - in - a-square Gauss -- Krüger Guyou hemisphere - in - a-square Lambert conformal conic Mercator Peirce quincuncial Stereographic Transverse Mercator Equal - area Bonne Sinusoidal Werner Bottomley Sinusoidal Werner Cylindrical Balthasart Behrmann Gall -- Peters Hobo -- Dyer Lambert cylindrical equal - area Smyth equal - surface Trystan Edwards Tobler hyperelliptical Collignon Mollweide Albers Briesemeister Eckert II Eckert IV Eckert VI Hammer Lambert azimuthal equal - area Quadrilateralized spherical cube Equidistant in some aspect Conic Equirectangular Sinusoidal Two - point Werner Gnomonic Gnomonic Loxodromic Loximuthal Mercator Retroazimuthal ( Mecca or Qibla ) Craig Hammer Littrow By construction Compromise Chamberlin trimetric Kavrayskiy VII Miller cylindrical Robinson Van der Grinten Wagner VI Winkel tripel Hybrid Goode homolosine HEALPix Perspective Planar Gnomonic Orthographic Stereographic Central cylindrical Polyhedral Cahill Butterfly Dymaxion Quadrilateralized spherical cube Waterman butterfly See also Latitude Longitude Tissot 's indicatrix Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robinson_projection&oldid=801508859 '' Categories : Map projections Talk Contents About Wikipedia भोजपुरी Català Deutsch Eesti Español Français Italiano Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Português Suomi Türkçe 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 20 September 2017, at 02 : 37. 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Question: where is the most distortion on a robinson projection
Answer: close to the poles