Sakabol lives!
Feb. 20th, 2008 06:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoSo.
Once upon a time, there was the Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion projection. It consists of 20 equal sided triangles, and was long the only map of the world you could get that you could fold into a solid (albeit not exactly a sphere).
While at Pomona College, Andrew Chittick and I sat and thought long and hard about the concepts behind the Dymaxion projection -- perhaps with the aid of Reinheitsgebot compliant products, perhaps not -- and we hit upon an idea:
If 20 sides was good, 32 sides was better. With more sides, you'd come closer to a sphere, and have less distortion at the center of each face. Plus, if you picked the right solid, you'd have an international symbol of unity and good times.
Thus was the O'Brien-Chittick Sakabol projection born, circa 1984 or so.
It being the mid 1980s, though, getting GIS databases and doing the CAD/CAM work would be hard. So it was punted.
I am pleased to discover that a parallel development has been found.
They describe the projection as, "Polygnomonic." Isn't that adorable?
Once upon a time, there was the Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion projection. It consists of 20 equal sided triangles, and was long the only map of the world you could get that you could fold into a solid (albeit not exactly a sphere).
While at Pomona College, Andrew Chittick and I sat and thought long and hard about the concepts behind the Dymaxion projection -- perhaps with the aid of Reinheitsgebot compliant products, perhaps not -- and we hit upon an idea:
If 20 sides was good, 32 sides was better. With more sides, you'd come closer to a sphere, and have less distortion at the center of each face. Plus, if you picked the right solid, you'd have an international symbol of unity and good times.
Thus was the O'Brien-Chittick Sakabol projection born, circa 1984 or so.
It being the mid 1980s, though, getting GIS databases and doing the CAD/CAM work would be hard. So it was punted.
I am pleased to discover that a parallel development has been found.
They describe the projection as, "Polygnomonic." Isn't that adorable?
