Rendered at 16:19:56 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Cloudflare Workers.
gildedkris 16 hours ago [-]
As I understand:
* Mercator has accurate shapes but inaccurate sizes.
* Equal Earth has inaccurate shapes but more accurate sizes.
Inaccurate shapes are not a problem when looking at a big (global) static picture. Your brain still matches the shapes and connects the dots. However in a digital app when zoomed in, street views of NZ, east China, Chile, and Canada would be completely warped to be borderline unusable for most people. Zooming in would likely force the app to switch or gradually transition back to a shape-preserving projection, likely Mercator.
If Google would actually get on board with this UN resolution, would we start seeing shapeshifting countries and cities in Google Maps whenever we zoom? How do you counter this?
Llamamoe 9 hours ago [-]
You can smoothly interpolate between different projections, and the scale differences are large enough that it should be gradual enough not to notice much. Either way, globe view is always superior.
Typical. They're trying to make the 3rd world huge
crote 20 hours ago [-]
The "3rd world" is huge. Anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly in need of a less-misleading map.
On a traditional Mercator projection Africa looks to be smaller than the United States and Canada combined. In reality Africa is 50% larger - and those are the 2nd-largest and 3rd-largest countries in the world!
final_aeon 20 hours ago [-]
They're huge if you look at area, but what about other axes?
Bjartr 21 hours ago [-]
Why do you think that the accurate size isn't worth representing?
final_aeon 20 hours ago [-]
It's mathematically impossible. Political mathematics always ends well
VertanaNinjai 20 hours ago [-]
Political mathematics like the Mercator projection which shrunk Africa to an unrealistic degree?
final_aeon 20 hours ago [-]
Is that why we adopted the Mercator projection? No, it's not
crote 20 hours ago [-]
Obviously. Every projection will be off. Unless you are a 15th-century sailor, there is no reason to favor the Mercator projection over any other one. Sticking with it is also a political choice.
Inaccurate shapes are not a problem when looking at a big (global) static picture. Your brain still matches the shapes and connects the dots. However in a digital app when zoomed in, street views of NZ, east China, Chile, and Canada would be completely warped to be borderline unusable for most people. Zooming in would likely force the app to switch or gradually transition back to a shape-preserving projection, likely Mercator.
If Google would actually get on board with this UN resolution, would we start seeing shapeshifting countries and cities in Google Maps whenever we zoom? How do you counter this?
On a traditional Mercator projection Africa looks to be smaller than the United States and Canada combined. In reality Africa is 50% larger - and those are the 2nd-largest and 3rd-largest countries in the world!