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Worldmapper
A very cool use of technology, geography and demographics can be found over at the site Worldmapper. They have developed a really amazing algorithm that allows you to see the world and the various sizes of the country therein, through various statistics. Countries look skinny or fat according to their share of wealth or trade or population or education or whatever gets plugged in, but they maintain their familiar boundaries and shapes. Some of the results make the countries look silly (i.e. a Chile-shaped USA), but they are scientifically precise.
For example, the map here shows the break down for tourism. Now this is fascinating, right? It seems that Western Europe is the most popular destination for international tourists, receiving 46% of world tourist trips, while on the other end 0.1% of world tourist trips are made to Central African territories. Hmmm, I guess that's not too surprising, though. More interesting perhaps is the map here that shows countries that receive more international tourist visits than international visits are made by their residents. Anyway, that's just a sampling. There are a lot more fascinating maps to see at the site.
Worldmapper was created by geographers from the University of Sheffield's Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group (There's an innovative college major!) and by Mark Newman, a physicist at the University of Michigan. Really neat.
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, Antarctica, United States
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Justin Glow Feb 10th 2007 11:55AM
The maps Worldmapper generates are called cartograms. Check out the wiki for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartogram
/former geography and cartography student