Generated from the same geometry the printer is handed — the plate seen from directly above. It cannot show the relief, which is the part you have to hold.
North Carolina
Sixteen regions, mountains to barrier islands
Few places pack so much change into one state outline. The western pieces are Appalachian, folded and steep; the middle is Piedmont, rolling and worn; the east is coastal plain, so flat the relief nearly disappears, ending in the thin sand of the barrier islands. Laid out in order the pieces read as a cross-section of the whole Appalachian story from summit to sea. The Land of Sky piece, around Asheville, is the subject of its own puzzle.
What a child works out
- Mountains, hills and plain in one state, in that order, west to east.
- Old mountains are round; young mountains are sharp.
- The coast is a moving line made of sand.
The plate
- Pieces
- 16 pieces
- Plate
- 250 × 176 mm
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 3.4 km
- Vertical exaggeration
- × 6.87
- Thickness
- 8.8 mm
- Smallest piece
- 357 mm²
- Fit
- 0.3 mm clearance
- Material
- PLA, printed in Switzerland
B5 — the size of a school exercise book.
How much ground one millimetre of plate covers.
Height is stretched by this factor so the relief is readable at desk size.
Nothing is cut smaller than a child can pick up.
Printed in place, so every piece seats first time without sanding.
Every named piece
- Albemarle
- Cape Fear
- Centralina
- Eastern Carolina
- High Country
- Isothermal
- Kerr Tar
- Land of Sky
- Lumber River
- Mid Carolina
- Mid East
- Piedmont Triad
- Southwestern
- Triangle J
- Upper Coastal Plain
- Western Piedmont
Zoom in, zoom out
A piece of each of these is the subject of the next one. Each plate is redrawn at its own scale, so it is a real map at every level rather than an enlargement of the one above.
Follow the borders — World to continent to country to state to township
More from Countries & States
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Europe
Forty-five countries at real elevation
The political map, printed on the terrain it was drawn over. Forty-five pieces, from Andorra to Russia's western edge.
- Pieces
- 45 pieces
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 24.7 km
- Suitable for
- Ages 6 and up
- Price
- CHF 120.00
The United States
The lower forty-eight, and two pieces you would not expect
Fifty pieces. The straight western borders and the crooked eastern ones, over the ground that explains both.
- Pieces
- 50 pieces
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 20.1 km
- Suitable for
- Ages 6 and up
- Price
- CHF 120.00
North America
Nineteen countries, Panama to the Arctic
The continent as countries — including the Caribbean islands that are usually too small to cut.
- Pieces
- 19 pieces
- Scale
- 1 mm ≈ 49.3 km
- Suitable for
- Ages 6 and up
- Price
- CHF 120.00