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Creating a Map Based on Distances Between Cities

Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:03:51 -0800

Mapping question: I have a list of (imaginary) cities. I also know each city's as-the-crow-flies distance from every other city on the list. Based on this data alone, I would like to create a (hypothetical) map that shows all of these cities in their proper locations. I recognize that that the map's "rotation" would be arbitrary based on where & how you start plotting, but it seems that you should be able to plot out the relationships between cities properly. Is there software that can help me do this? To be a little more concrete, imagine that you have a mileage chart similar to this one. (That chart contains driving distances, but let's assume we have as-the-crow-flies distances instead.) If you pick an arbitrary starting point for one city, you can then plot out where every other city belongs, because you know how far each city is supposed to be from all the other cities.

I can envision at least one simple way to do this manually if you have just a handful of cities. But if you have a lot of cities, it becomes harder and harder. So I'd love to know if there is software that can calculate and draw such a map automatically. (Note: Using latitude/longitude is not an option - the scenario only involves knowing as-the-crow-flies distances between imaginary cities.) Thanks!

Where did that continent go?

WhackyparseThis — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:39:01 -0800

Is there any technical reason why Antarctica often gets left off world maps?

No, they toilets don't spin opposite of the northern hemisphere.

Keith Talent — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:47:51 -0800

I was just recently in Buenos Aires. The Time Out Guide had the maps in the back oriented with north facing down. Why? I would think southern hemisphere maps would still face north up due to magnetic north and wayfinding with a compass. Was this just a case of Time Out being wrong/different/thinking logically that the south pole would be the desired direction of orientation in the southern hemisphere? And yes, we were perpetually lost until we flipped the guide upside down and west/east left/right were as they should be.

This one is for all you map enthusiasts out there.

eskers — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:32:56 -0800

What kind of mapping was used to create the UN logo? I have a question about the U.N. logo. Was there a particular map projection used for the globe in the middle of the logo? I'm guessing it's azimuthal from the looks of wikipedia's map projection entry, but it may not be because you can see all of South America, Africa, and Australia in the logo.

Embedded Map Alternatives ?

southof40 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:38:28 -0800

Good looking maps for embedding in web pages with a distinctive look/feel that matches the page it's within (so probably not GoogleMaps/YahooMaps/Bing) ? I'm looking for maps for a website but don't want to the 'normal' Google look and feel. In fact ideally I would be able to tailor aspects of the maps to allow them to fit into the colour scheme of the site.

The purpose of the maps is almost as much as an illustration as it is for information (or at least 50/50).

As far as I can see there's no way to tweak Google Maps to do that ("Let's have the land green and sea yellow and not show roads at all").

Ideally maps would be available for North America and Western Europe but USA alone would be a good start.

I'd welcome any ideas even if they don't match my ideal.

Dammit, Mercator!

HumuloneRanger — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:05:15 -0800

Help me find a series of maps with various countries superimposed on the continental US. I used to spend hours poring over atlases as a kid. One of my favorite maps came from a community college course that my grandfather took; it was a map of Africa something like this. Looking back, I really appreciate what an intuitive grasp that gave me of just how HUGE the continent is, when we're usually so accustomed to the Mercator projection.

However, I still find it difficult to get a sense of the sizes of individual countries compared to my own. I'm familiar with common verbal comparisons, e.g. 'France is about the size of Texas,' and the CIA World Factbook is pretty good about providing some less common ones, but this is the sort of thing where a visual is much more helpful. My google-fu is failing me, perhaps because I'm not coming up with a very good search string. This isn't very helpful, because it's cluttered with too many borders and cities and is clearly just two areas from different latitudes of the same Mercator projection. I think this site captures the basic idea of what I'm looking for, although I'd prefer higher quality maps and less in the way of politicization. Something like this map of Alaska, but with India, Japan, Nigeria, etc in its stead.

Any interesting map theory books?

slab_lizard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:06:27 -0800

I'm looking for suggested book(s) for backgrounding myself in map theory. Think somewhere between a history of maps and a technical textbook. I've been looking at maps for 30+ years as a non-geographer, and will be taking some GIS and mapping courses this autumn. So, plenty of text-and-classroom exposure there. What kind of semi-technical background reading would be useful over the summer?

X does Not mark my spot !

lobstah — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:43:27 -0800

How do I correct a Google Maps error ? …2nd attempt. We operate a home-based business that is off the beaten path, but near a major tourist area. The road we live on was originally a numbered State Route, and formed a loop that passed through 3 different villages. A few years ago, the State decommissioned the road, and granted ownership to the 3 villages. Each of the villages has its own name for this road, and this has resulted in several errors on Google Maps.

Last year after many attempts, I spoke with a Google human, and I explained my dilemma. I was directed to some Web2.0 application where I noted the errors, but there has been no correction. Not only that, but they made a change that further complicates the situation (using a name that already exists for another road).

Who the hell do I call/email to get this corrected? Our season is very short, and our potential clients tend to give up rather easily. Mapquest has it right, but a friend told me his GPS could not find us. Do I need to contact them too? Has anyone had any success changing a Google Map? This has cost us business, and I’m getting a little pissed about it.

The Traveling Salesperson Who Needs to Restock Problem

Chrishartley — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:41:38 -0800

I'm having trouble conceptualizing a Traveling Salesperson Problem that I'm interested in solving. The story:
This is for a bicycle powered weekly curbside recycling pickup service. Each customer/household has one container of recyclables that they put by the curb on a designated day. There will be somewhere between 20 and 300 customers somewhat scattered around the city. The bicycle trailer can hold up to 12 containers of recycling at a time and off-loads the containers at any of 28 transfer stations also scattered around the city.

I'd like to create a series of fairly efficient routes so each household is visited at least once and no more than 12 households are visited in a row without stopping by a transfer station. More complex requirements would be to start and end at a particular location (easy) and divide the route into multiple days so no more than X miles are traveled or Y households are visited in a particular trip (probably increases the number of calculations another few powers).

My level of knowledge about TSP problems is limited to reading Wikipedia and the TSP Solver for Google Maps but I would like to learn more.

So two questions:

One, anyone got a quick answer?
Two, any pointers for learning more about this type of problem, including the language that would be used to describe it?
Third, when some company has a Traveling Salesperson Problem how do they solve it? Hire a mathematician? Specialized software like Concorde?

Can anyone identify the source of this map of the Boston Harbor Islands?

quatsch — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:35:09 -0800

Can anyone identify the source of this map of the Boston Harbor Islands? I'm looking for a copy/replica of an Edward Rowe Snow map entitled "The Islands of Boston Harbor." My parents have a copy, though they can't remember where it came from. There are no creases, so I don't think that it was originally a foldout from a book (though there is a book of the same name by Snow, with editions from 1935, 1971, and 2008). The map's copyright date is 1962. Any ideas on where I should look?

Here's a link to a photo of the map and a detail view.

Identify these maps

bru — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:43:47 -0800

What are the countries, provinces or states shown in this image? There is Israel twice, unknown, Alberta and unknown (could be California + Cascadia but I am not sure).

Bonus question: this might be just a mysterious work of art but it looks like a riddle. There are some kind of city grids as background spelling (I think) THEFT so the riddle must be political and probably anti US. I don't see what is being stolen in Alberta (oil sands are handsomely bought).

Category: I suppose that "geography" fits inside "science & nature", right?

Looking for website to view custom Google Map by tags

mullacc — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 13:03:05 -0800

GoogleMapFilter: I'm looking for a Google Maps application/website that will allow me to create custom maps with location markers and then let me view those markers by tags. I've been using Wayfaring, which allows me to create multiple custom maps, add location markers and tag those markers. But, it doesn't seem to let me view my own maps filtered by the tags. I can search by tag, but only to see other users' markers. I checked the Wayfaring forums and another user has suggested this functionality, but it has yet to be implemented.

Here's an example of what I want to do: make a custom map called "Food Map" in which I will create markers for various restaurants and food stores. Then I want to view my map by tags, e.g., show only those markers tagged as "Mexican" or "Mexican+new" or "grocery+organic", etc.

Anyone know of a website that would allow me to do this? Unfortunately, I don't have the skills or patience to create it myself with Google Maps' developer tools, so DIY solutions are out.