The Winkel Tripel projection used an oblong shape with less distortions than the Mercator map. The well-known Mercator projection, which created a square map of the world by stretching the polar regions, received a score of 8.296 on their scale. The lower the score, the better the map, with a score of 0 being perfect. In 2007 Gott and Goldberg created a ranking system that gave every 2D map of the Earth a score for its accuracy based on how much it distorted key elements like distances and area. The new map is the latest example of years of research and critique by Gott and his colleagues on existing 2D maps of Earth. 'We believe it is the most accurate flat map of Earth yet,' they wrote in the study. The group published their efforts on the pre-print open access repository arXiv. Gott was joined by Princeton mathematician Robert Vanderbrei and physicist David Goldberg from Drexel University in Philadelphia to create the map. Gott, Vanderbei and Goldberg/Princeton University The group said they believed it was the most accurate 2-D map of the Earth ever produced. Richard Gott, Robert Vanderbei and David Goldberg.

Flat earth map poster