Alternative World Map Creator v.1.0.1

Planet Earth is quite much like a sphere. When it is depicted on a square world map, this is often done just like on the map below. Longitude lines are the lines between the North and South pole. These lines come together near the poles, but get more distant from each other near the equator. World maps are often created by drawing these lines as if they are parellel, i.e. as if they are as distant from each other near the poles as near the equator. This yields quite a lot of distortion on the map, but we dont complain. The distortion is biggest near the poles and few people live in these cold areas. Therefore, a world map with hugely distorted poles is not inconvenient. You can create alternative world maps by choosing another place to be on the top of the map. Instead of the North pole, you can choose any place, like your home. Longitude lines are drawn from this place to the opposite side of the planet and a map can be drawn. You will see that the results are very different from what we think is a normal world map, although they are in fact good world maps. They are not more distorted than "normal" maps, but the distortion has been moved from the poles to two other places.

Planet Earth is quite much like a sphere. When ...