world robinson projection map with country outlines

These east and west edges are markedly less curved than are the edges of other pseudocylindrical projections (the result being that the Robinson projection generally suffers from less shearing than do other pseudocylindrical projections). The poles are shown as straight lines (0.5322 times as long as the equator) and the east and west edges of the map are curved lines 180° from the map’s central meridian. Robinson maps show lines of latitude as parallel straight lines and lines of longitude as nonparallel lines that become increasingly curved as you move farther away from the map’s central meridian. Beyond these limits, shape distortion can be quite severe. However, shapes are not distorted very badly within about 45° north or south of the equator or within about 45° of the map’s central meridian. The Robinson projection is not conformal shapes are distorted more than they would be in a truly conformal projection. Robinson projections differ from one another in the locations of their central meridians. Robinson projections have normal aspects. The Robinson projection is basically secant, with lines of tangency running along the 38° 0′ 0″N and 38° 0′ 0″S lines of latitude. The Robinson projection can best be described as being pseudocylindrical, but given its unique method of development, it does not fall perfectly into any known form category. To this day, no other projection uses this approach to build a map. Instead, Robinson used a huge number of trial-and-error computer simulations to develop a table that allows a cartographer to look up how far above or below a Robinson map’s equator a particular line of latitude will be located, and then to estimate (via a simple interpolation process) where along this line a particular longitude will fall. Unlike all other projections, Professor Robinson did not develop this projection by developing new geometric formulas to convert latitude and longitude coordinates from the surface of the Model of the Earth to locations on the map.

The Robinson projection is highly unique. The “Robinson projection” is unquestionably the name of choice. In at least one reference book, this projection is termed the Pseudocylindrical Projection with Pole Line, which is highly descriptive (the “pole line” comes from the fact that the North and South Poles on a Robinson projection are shown as lines and not points), but so unwieldily that it is not surprising that this name also failed to gain much acceptance. Robinson called this the orthophanic projection (which means “right appearing”), but this name never caught on.

World robinson projection map with country outlines