▲ 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
[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (3 children) The simple fact is no map projection will be perfect or do anyone "justice". You're flattening out a sphere to a flat rectangle. A lot of compromises have to be made. So go with the one that functions best for navigation. permalink fedilink source hideshow 6 child comments replies: [–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago Well a rectangle gives you easy direction, true north is always up. But you can map very accurate maps that are not rectangle. They just make navigation a bitch permalink fedilink source parent [–] troglodyke@lemmy.federate.cc 3 points 1 year ago Some projections are better than others. The Mercator projection at least has a use case that justifies its creation. This map has no purpose other than a political one. Everyone with a cursory knowledge of maps knows there are inherent issues protecting a 3d object into a 2d surface. That's fine because some projections are useful permalink fedilink source parent [–] jnod4@lemmy.ca 1 point 1 year ago Globes. permalink fedilink source parent
[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago Well a rectangle gives you easy direction, true north is always up. But you can map very accurate maps that are not rectangle. They just make navigation a bitch permalink fedilink source parent
[–] troglodyke@lemmy.federate.cc 3 points 1 year ago Some projections are better than others. The Mercator projection at least has a use case that justifies its creation. This map has no purpose other than a political one. Everyone with a cursory knowledge of maps knows there are inherent issues protecting a 3d object into a 2d surface. That's fine because some projections are useful permalink fedilink source parent