Peirce quincuncial projection

Imagine you have a big round ball like a basketball, and you want to make a flat map of the entire world. But how do you stretch and flatten a round ball into a rectangle or a square-shaped map? That's not easy! Scientists have made many different ways of flattening a round ball to make maps, and one of those ways is called the Peirce quincuncial projection.

The Peirce quincuncial projection is like taking your basketball and slicing it into four pieces that are shaped like little pizza slices. You then flatten each slice and lay them side by side like the pages of a book. That makes a new shape that has two straight sides and two curved sides, like a rectangle but with bumpy corners. This new shape is the map of the world, but now flattened into a rectangle!

One of the coolest things about the Peirce quincuncial projection is that it still shows the entire planet in one piece, even though it's laid out flat. This makes it helpful for scientists who study the Earth, because they can see all the continents, oceans, and countries without having to look at a round globe - which takes up more space, is harder to handle, and can't be printed or displayed as easily.

In summary, the Peirce quincuncial projection is a way of taking a round ball like a globe and flattening it into a rectangle or square-shaped map. It works by slicing the ball into four pieces, flattening them out, and arranging them side-by-side to form a bumpy-edged rectangle. This is helpful for scientists who study the Earth because it allows them to see the world in a single flat view.