Return to Projection Lab
Polyhedral Family·Inventor: R. Buckminster Fuller·Year: 1954
Dymaxion Projection (Fuller)
"Unfolded regular icosahedron revealing Earth as one continuous island in one continuous ocean"
Projected onto the 20 triangular facets of an icosahedron and unfolded flat with no standard 'North-Up' orientation, Fuller's Dymaxion map presents the Earth's continents as an almost contiguous landmass with minimal local shape or area distortion.
Forward Mathematical Formulation
X-COORDINATE:
Gnomonic projection onto 20 icosahedral faces + coordinate unfolding matrixY-COORDINATE:
Transformation of spherical triangles to planar equilateral trianglesDIFFERENTIAL METRIC:
Near-uniform scale across face centers; boundary distortion < 2%Cartographic Application & Critique
Primary Applications: Human migration pattern visualization, Spaceship Earth ecological pedagogy, Global energy grid modeling.
Critical Analysis: A radical disruption of Eurocentric north-oriented spatial hierarchy. Its interrupted oceans make it useless for maritime navigation, but unequaled for tracking terrestrial human civilization lineages.
TISSOT INDICATRIX (Lat: 60°N)Area: 1.02×
MERIDIAN (h)
1.13
PARALLEL (k)
0.90
ANGULAR (2θ')
13.2°
Tissot Profile Across Latitudes
| LATITUDE | SCALE h | SCALE k | AREA hk | 2θ' DEFORM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0°N | 1.02 | 1.02 | 1.04× | 4.1° |
| 30°N | 1.03 | 1.01 | 1.04× | 5.2° |
| 60°N | 1.04 | 1.02 | 1.06× | 6.0° |
| 80°N | 1.05 | 1.03 | 1.08× | 7.2° |
Interdisciplinary Geometric Links
MorphologiumDERIVED_FROM
Icosahedral Polyhedral Mesh
NarratologiumEXPRESSES
Spaceship Earth Narrative
Academic Provenance: Fuller, R. B. (1943)