Atlas

πŸ—ΊοΈ Atlas

A map you can take apart.

βš™οΈ Settings
Theme

Auto follows whatever your phone or computer is set to. The map keeps the same colours for the same things either way β€” the sea is still the sea.

Seed

Leave it empty for a different map every time. Type something in and you get the same map back whenever you type it again β€” so you can set two people the exact same round. 🎲 empties the box.

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Done!

πŸ—ΊοΈ What this is

A real map of the United States β€” the outlines are the ones the US Census publishes, not drawings, so a state is exactly the shape it is in an atlas. Pick one of four things to do with it.

🧩 Jigsaw

One state at a time appears at the bottom, drawn big so you can see it whatever size it really is. Drag it onto the map where you think it goes. Land on the right place and it stays; land anywhere else and it comes back to you β€” nothing is lost and nothing is counted against you.

Stuck on one? Tap ⏭️ and it goes to the back of the queue. That is free, always.

πŸ”Ž Find it

The map is all there and it names a state. Tap the state. If you tap the wrong one it tells you which one you actually tapped, and then shows you where the right one was β€” that is worth more than just "no".

πŸ›οΈ Capitals

It names a state and offers you cities. One of them is the capital. The wrong answers are always real capitals of other states, never made up.

πŸ‘€ Explore

No score, no clock, no questions. Tap any state and it tells you its name, its capital and its two letters. Explore always shows you everything, whichever rung you picked β€” it is the mode for looking things up.

🎚️ The three rungs

They all use the same map. What changes is how much the map tells you.

Explorer β€” the outlines are there to aim at, states are named on the map, and the capitals question gives you three cities.
Navigator β€” the state outlines and the names go away, four cities.
Cartographer β€” the coast goes dim, the capitals question does not show you which state it means, the wrong cities are all neighbours, and the seven little states in the north-east are in play.

The outline of the country is there at every rung. Taking that away would not make the puzzle harder, it would just stop telling you where the country is.

πŸ” Little states

Rhode Island is about a fiftieth of the width of the country. The map is not redrawn to make it bigger β€” that would be a lie about the country β€” so instead you can pinch, drag with two fingers, use βˆ’ and οΌ‹, and tap β›Ά to see the whole thing again. In Jigsaw the piece in your hand is always drawn big, even when its real home is tiny.

πŸ”οΈ Alaska and Hawaii

They are drawn below the south-west corner at a smaller scale, the way every classroom map does it. The shapes are exactly right; only where they sit is a convention. Drawn to true scale and position they would push the rest of the country into a corner.

πŸ›οΈ Washington, DC

It is on the map because leaving it out would put a hole in the east coast. It is never asked as a state, because it is not one.

πŸ”Ž What everything means

Everything the map can draw: