ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Winkel tripel projection

Hey kiddo, have you ever seen a map of the world? You know, the kind that you might find hanging on a wall or in a classroom? Well, have you ever wondered how the flat map we see on the wall is made from the round, 3D globe that the world really is? That's where something called a "map projection" comes in.

There are many ways to create a map projection, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some projections look great for showing a certain part of the world, while others might be better at showing the whole picture. One type of map projection is called a Winkel Tripel projection.

The Winkel Tripel projection was designed to be an all-purpose projection that looks good for most areas of the world. The way it works is a bit tricky to explain, but imagine you have an orange that you want to peel and flatten out into a circle. If you've ever done this before, you know that there are always some parts of the orange that end up getting stretched out or squished together in order to make it fit onto a flat surface.

The same thing happens with a round globe when we try to turn it into a flat map. The Winkel Tripel projection tries to minimize this distortion by using a mix of techniques to make the map look more accurate. It balances out the way areas near the equator and near the poles are represented, so nothing looks too stretched or compressed.

In short, a Winkel Tripel projection is like taking a globe and carefully flattening it out so that it looks like a map that's as accurate and true to the real world as possible. It's a smart way to visualize the earth and make it easier for people to understand how the world looks in 2D.