You must log in or register to comment.
Why does Africa, the largest continent, not simply eat the other ones?
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 @shadowtofu@discuss.tchncs.de for the hint. https://discuss.tchncs.de/comment/23729118
(and wait until you see the number the Tube Map did on south London.)
Not even a mention of africa
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.
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.
Behold the perfect map:
- all areas have correct relative size
- 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)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.
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:
Perfection.
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.India is only not often counted as a continent because it decided to bum rush Asia, creating work for generations of sherpas dragging half-dead white men up excitingly tall mountains in the process.
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.
Maybe the oceanbuilding process between Africa and Asia stopped after I finished my MSc in Geoscience 10 years ago, but I doubt it.
It’s only moving away from Arabia.
Never said it would move away from anything else.
stopped after I finished my MSc in Geoscience
This snarky argument from authority is redundant given that the facts are extremely easy to understand and outlined in the Wikipedia article I cited.
The biggest gap between Africa and Eurasia (PS; we agree that Europe is not a continent) is the Mediterranean sea, and it is getting smaller. That does seem relevant.
The Red Sea is what’s becoming an ocean, technically speaking.
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~
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?
Still best for sailing the high seas.
You think I just go after software? /s
The Russian “11 time zones” fallacy. At the north pole you can get 24 time zones into one square meter.
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.
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.
