I’m refering of course to a flat earth map that is an alternative to the current world map. According to my extensive research the production of a flat earth ‘alternative map’ is an impossibility rendering the flat earth also impossible.
(Let not get bogged down in discussing all the various projections used as these are just convienient ways of pictorially representing the 3D globe on a 2D sheet of paper, which is a tricky thing to do to avoid distortions. Most maps used for travelling deal with smaller sections of the earth’s surface rendering any distortions negligible.)
The main problem is that for a flat earth map to exist something would have to give, and by that I mean land masses including towns cities, mountains and rivers would have to be relocated, which as we all know is an impossibility.
If we start with the Americas, this continent is criss crossed with a vast and complex network of both road and rail with known and fixed start and end points. The 30,000 Km long Pan American Highway being a vast road network stretching from Alaska to Chile albeit with a smallish gap of 100Km. The upshot is the geography of this continent is known and fixed with the location of every town, mountain river and forest known. Using commercial maps you could drive anywhere on this continent, like I did driving Route 66 in the late 80s, and be confident about both distances covered and the exact location of your final destination.
The same could be said of all the other continental land masses. I could take trains, as you all could, from London in the West to Vladivostok in the East, a distance of over 8,500 Km. The track is fixed securely to the ground and passes through all the stop offs acording to published maps.
International communications by land sea and air where the exact locations of both start and end points are known make it impossible for the geography of the planet to be reinterpreted. With the layout of all the major land masses established the positional relationship of an island like Australia can be established by the intricate sea lane connections with major ports in Asia, Europe and the Americas. These sea lanes are travelled every day of the year by a vast armada of container ships carrying both finished goods and raw materials.
To reiterate. Given how the location of every point on earth is accurately known relative to many other points it’s just not possible for the geography of the earth to be reinterpreted rendering the production of a flat earth map alternative as an impossibility.