more maps
by John at 11/09/2004 02:07:00 PM
Salon.com points out some really amazing maps concerning (what else) last week's Presidential election. Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman, researchers at the University of Michigan, have published a series of cartograms, which are maps in which the sizes of geographic regions are proportional to population or another property. Apparently, the construction of cartograms involves some serious mathematics - looking at the maps, I believe it!
Why is this important? Political: we vote by person, not acre, so the fact that 2.5 million sq. miles of the country is red and only 0.5 million sq. miles is blue is irrelevant. Analytical: these maps represent a fascinating way to visualize the available geographic, population, and voting data.
Other very interesting maps can be found here, including 3d maps of vote difference by county and county population, and a cartogram of state electoral votes. I think this one is especially telling - 140 years later and the same geographic divisions are present, even though the issues have changed.
Why is this important? Political: we vote by person, not acre, so the fact that 2.5 million sq. miles of the country is red and only 0.5 million sq. miles is blue is irrelevant. Analytical: these maps represent a fascinating way to visualize the available geographic, population, and voting data.
Other very interesting maps can be found here, including 3d maps of vote difference by county and county population, and a cartogram of state electoral votes. I think this one is especially telling - 140 years later and the same geographic divisions are present, even though the issues have changed.
» Post a Comment