1 wk. ago • 98%

Mercator v Reality

With a human face

38 comments

I did not realize the distance between the US and Canada was so big.

28
Obligatory XKCD: https://m.xkcd.com/977/

27
- Just posted it below ha ha
  
  5
It sucks that mercator became the standard map. I know basically nothing about maps, but i know how not-great mercator is. Of the little i know about cartography I like Winkel Tripel the best

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- Dln't quote me on this, but from what I've heard, the Mercador projection became standard because it's good for navigating since qit conserves angles. Draw a strait line depicting your current trajectory and another the trajectory that would get you where you want, measure the angle between them, and that's the actual angle you need to turn.
  
  38
  
  Yeah, it’s actually a really great map for its purpose of navigation, which is a pretty damn important aspect of map usage. I’m tired of everyone shitting on it because of that scene in west wing.
  
  31
  
  In the Internet age, I believe Mercator remains standard because it's easy, since image buffers and UI viewports are implemented as rectangular arrays. For example, when you click on the map the pixel coordinates can be converted to (lat, long) just by scaling, without having to do complicated coordinate transformations.
  
  10
- Winkel Tripel is very nice!
  
  8
  
  Ah, I see you're that kind of map enthusiast, eh?
  
  Edit: I see you've already posted it yourself. Not an original bone in my body.
  
  4
Mercator stans will try and convince you that Russia and Canada aren't actually islands with thousands of miles of ocean isolating them from all their neighbours smh my head 😤

16
relevant map men video.

12
I kinda like the Kavrayskiy VII projection. It's similar to the Winkel triple but it looks more natural to me, like a 2D Google Earth.

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- Eckert IV is mine, which is quite similar visually. It has the upside of being equal-area, but the downside of squashing the poles a bit more. Sadly both of us suffer the injustice of being excluded from that one xkcd comic
  
  3
  
  It looks cool!
  
  1
“It’s freaking me out!”

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- I think that was the upside down map
  
  4
Unmuted this and was very disappointed that there wasn't a trombone sound

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USA is only about as big as europe in surface area? And russia about 1/3 bigger?

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Which is why should use the Gall-Peters projection.

6
- I'm more of a Kavrayskiy VII fan myself
  
  Reference to https://xkcd.com/977/
  
  4
- I hate you.
  
  3
Since when is Patagonia its own country?

3
- Islands have been done separately from the mainland when they're part of the same country on this map. Look at Canada, where Vancouver Island and Newfoundland end up far away from the rest of Canada
  
  4
  
  Ah good call
  
  2
imgbb.com

bandwidth limit exceeded

3
- Thanks!
  
  https://i.imgur.com/eHPlDow.mp4
  
  5
Breathe in!

2
Another L for Russia

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