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Why does Africa, the largest continent, not simply eat the other ones?
Shouldn’t it say ‘this is the true size of Russian’? Africa is close to proportional, Russia is the half of the example stretched out.
Do we really need all this Mercator ragebait? Just look at a fucking globe - it’s the thing your dad keeps the scotch in.
(alternatively most map apps go to a globe view when you zoom right out.)
(alternatively most map apps go to a globe view when you zoom right out.)
Well, … no, at least GMaps, OSMAnd, Comaps don’t. Thanks to @[email protected] for the hint. https://discuss.tchncs.de/comment/23729118
(and wait until you see the number the Tube Map did on south London.)
I really wish discussions of map projections would move beyond “wow look how badly mercator represents size”
This kind of post comes up like every week.
Behold the perfect map:
- equal area projection
- rectangular map shape
- rectangular coordinates
- zero distortion along equator
- centered on date line, not some irrelevant Bri’ish town
- aspect ratio (width/height) is π
- developed by a mathematician
Show map
(Bonus: England is cut in half)Is it just me or do those pink versions of Russia include Crimea?
No, as far as I can see, they don’t, the western border of russia is straight-ish without Crimea protruding further to the west.
However, in the base map (upper image), Crimea seems to be neither Ukraine nor russia.
That’s why I always carry around my pocket globe and compass to scale and compare distances accurately.
Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. You put this same thing on a typical equal-area projection and it will still fail.
Projections distorting things isn’t a conspiracy, it’s guaranteed by mathematics.
The Russian “11 time zones” fallacy. At the north pole you can get 24 time zones into one square meter.
I wish we would stop stretching land masses and start stretching oceans in basic maps. We don’t need the Mercator for naval navigation in our day to day lives, but knowing the real size of Russia and Africa would affect our basic view of the world.
Here you go:
In which Asia’s and Africa’s claim to “continent” status looks suddenly shaky, and Europe’s completely laughable.
If Africa was the same continent as Asia, it should be easy to walk across.
But you literally can’t. The only connections are a freeway bridge (currently closed), a railway bridge, a road tunnel and ferries. And geologically, an ocean is in the process of opening up in between.As for Europe, it doesn’t even have its own continental plate.
It’s less of a continent than India.If Africa was the same continent as Asia, it should be easy to walk across.
They literally had to dig the Suez channel to separate both.
geologically, an ocean is in the process of opening up in between
Hardly. Africa is converging with Europe and the Med is being crushed. It’s only moving away from Arabia.
Perfection.
If stretching is ok, then why not go all the way.
If you dislike stretching, you can always cut instead. That’s why we also have a series of octahedral butterfly maps.
If that’s not polyhedral enough, you could try the Dymaxion projection instead.
That butterfly one looks sick, I’m not a fan of the overplayed “world map in a cool material” wall-art but this one might get a pass depending on the execution.
There are several projections that follow this butterfly style. Still haven’t decided which one I want on my wall. There’s a local laser cutting company that definitely could make one out of plywood. I think it would look awesome.
Actually, azimuthal equidistant is unironically useful if it centers on you.
Absolutely. In a sailing context, it would totally make sense to have a digital map like that. I don’t know if professional navigators actually do that though. Maybe they have some even more obscure projection that has some unique benefits that fit a particular niche.
Specifically, radio operators like them - with a directional antenna, it matters which direction goes from Canada to Australia the fastest, and if your station is fixed it can even be a paper map.
I don’t know what sailing yachts would use. Probably a close-up map that’s nearly flat anyway, since surf, wind direction and local obstacles are the main consideration. In commercial or military sailing, it’s entirely possible normal navigation just takes place automatically and digitally at this point. Sextant, compass and Mercator still exist as a backup, though!
In a military context, you absolutely need to have robust backups. If your ship gets badly damaged you better be familiar with star charts and sextants.
Oh, and that radio operator thing makes a lot of sense too.
Thanks, I hate you.
Silly Mercator projection
~Its gonna take a lot to drag me away from you~
Still best for sailing the high seas.
You think I just go after software? /s
No, one kilometer in Africa is about 60 % shorter than in russia.
This. It’s closer to the equator, so they are rotating faster which means the kilometers get shorter. Don’t you just love science?
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Mercator map except in internet content complaining about them
Have you used Google Maps? Or OpenStreetMap?
Huh.
Well I’ll be damned! I actually thought Google zoomed out to a globe but that’s only on the satellite layer.
At least those tools actually are for navigation, not for showing the entire world.
That seems like one of those education things.
