foldable map of Ida Options

[chuckclark]

Here is a constant-scale natural boundary map of Ida that folds to a decent replica of the asteroid. Map edges are Ida's major ridges.[attachment=16299:Ida_MaxRidge_post.jpg]
[EDIT] Here it is again with the photomosaic properly credited; apologies to M. Nyrtsov for my oversight.

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[djellison]

GENIUS

[chuckclark]

GENIUS

Well, assuming you mean the ability to look at problems from outside the usual box, I plead guilty, and cravenly point the blame at having when back in grammar school specialized in play.

Or perhaps you mean the lucky magic that constant-scale natural boundary maps fold to replicate their originating object. I trace that idea to Albrecht Durer c1519, although that's a coincidental trace I owe entirely to the insights of the art historian Erwin Panofsky and his pal Marston Morse. I didn't uncover that connection to Durer's "prototopological" mappings until well into this project. Tell the truth, I had the good fortune as a first-grader to be challenged to "fix the problem with all these world maps"; problem being, "they're all stretchy at the edges."

And as for genius, I think it goes in greater measure to the slow-witted, like me. It took a good nine years of making these maps before it dawned on me that their essential characteristic is to rigorously put "constant-scale" (the equator on a Mercator or simple cylindrical map) at the edge -- edge no more stretchy, just what my challenger asked for! The "natural boundary" requirement is merely gravy, ensuring that the map's various and sundry lobes are composed of districts that make sense -- in this case valleys (aka basins or dales) -- rather than and abstract (pragmatic . . . objective) triangles or gores.

The general trick, seems to me, is to be able without prejudice to name something new. (For more info, see M. Faraday's confessions on his discovery of electromotive force.)

Here is the foldable Ida with the Tayfun-corrected ribs:
I haven't yet had time to try putting it together, so the caveat still holds about the ribs need shaving where the folded object differs from Ida's true shape. Also the caveat that I may have failed to maintain constant-scale at map edge, probably near point "n."

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