Milo wrote: ↑Sat Feb 21, 2026 12:13 am
So long as it unavoidably comes in multiple variations, you can't really claim it's the One True Way of blending maps and that all other ways are obsolete.
I think you seem to be missing the point. If you blend two conformal maps simply by averaging their coordinates, the resulting map will also be conformal.
What his paper explained was a technique of blending two equal-area maps... so that the resulting map would also be equal-area. That's a very useful thing to be able to do. Other ways of blending maps aren't obsolete, as they can still produce maps that look pretty... but this way of blending maps is a new tool that can produce maps that blend two equal-area projections - and retain the valuable property of being equal-area!
Milo wrote: ↑Sat Feb 21, 2026 12:13 am
So long as it unavoidably comes in multiple variations, you can't really claim it's the One True Way of blending maps and that all other ways are obsolete.
Which member of the infinite set of symmetric homotopies would achieve the designation of the One True Way?
Why is symmetry important in this context?
As a practical matter, what are these other ways of achieving an area-preserving homotopy?