▲ 326 ▼ African Union joins calls to end use of Mercator map that shrinks continent’s size (www.theguardian.com) submitted 1 year ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world 83 comments fedilink hide all child comments
[–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 child) Ok come up with something that's better and just as practical. permalink fedilink source hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Skua@kbin.earth 6 points 1 year ago (1 child) They did. They are specifically advocating for the Equal Earth projection. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 child) I mean everything is approximately to scale i guess, but the further east or west you get from Europe/Africa the more bent things get. Including the area that 75% of the worlds population live. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Skua@kbin.earth 6 points 1 year ago Well yeah, every map projection has to mis-represent something. In this case they're arguing that presenting area is more important than presenting angles. Outside of long-distance travel on ships and planes, which are not using general-purpose world maps, nobody is navigating with a world map, so I think that they're probably right here. It seems more important to me to understand the relative size of Africa to other landmasses than it is to know that the Korean peninsula is actually a few degrees off of being straight north of Borneo permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Skua@kbin.earth 6 points 1 year ago (1 child) They did. They are specifically advocating for the Equal Earth projection. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 child) I mean everything is approximately to scale i guess, but the further east or west you get from Europe/Africa the more bent things get. Including the area that 75% of the worlds population live. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Skua@kbin.earth 6 points 1 year ago Well yeah, every map projection has to mis-represent something. In this case they're arguing that presenting area is more important than presenting angles. Outside of long-distance travel on ships and planes, which are not using general-purpose world maps, nobody is navigating with a world map, so I think that they're probably right here. It seems more important to me to understand the relative size of Africa to other landmasses than it is to know that the Korean peninsula is actually a few degrees off of being straight north of Borneo permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago (1 child) I mean everything is approximately to scale i guess, but the further east or west you get from Europe/Africa the more bent things get. Including the area that 75% of the worlds population live. permalink fedilink source parent hideshow 2 child comments replies: [–] Skua@kbin.earth 6 points 1 year ago Well yeah, every map projection has to mis-represent something. In this case they're arguing that presenting area is more important than presenting angles. Outside of long-distance travel on ships and planes, which are not using general-purpose world maps, nobody is navigating with a world map, so I think that they're probably right here. It seems more important to me to understand the relative size of Africa to other landmasses than it is to know that the Korean peninsula is actually a few degrees off of being straight north of Borneo permalink fedilink source parent
[–] Skua@kbin.earth 6 points 1 year ago Well yeah, every map projection has to mis-represent something. In this case they're arguing that presenting area is more important than presenting angles. Outside of long-distance travel on ships and planes, which are not using general-purpose world maps, nobody is navigating with a world map, so I think that they're probably right here. It seems more important to me to understand the relative size of Africa to other landmasses than it is to know that the Korean peninsula is actually a few degrees off of being straight north of Borneo permalink fedilink source parent