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Information Is Beautiful
Information Is Beautiful
@infobeautiful@vis.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

Yet another reason to tut at the Mercator map projection
https://brilliantmaps.com/mercator-vs-true-size/

World map using a Mercator projection, but with the true relative sizes of countries overlaid in a darker shade. This illustrates how the standard Mercator projection distorts the size of landmasses, particularly those further from the equator, by showing the actual size differences. For example, Canada and Russia appear much smaller in their true relative size compared to their depiction in a standard Mercator projection.
World map using a Mercator projection, but with the true relative sizes of countries overlaid in a darker shade. This illustrates how the standard Mercator projection distorts the size of landmasses, particularly those further from the equator, by showing the actual size differences. For example, Canada and Russia appear much smaller in their true relative size compared to their depiction in a standard Mercator projection.
World map using a Mercator projection, but with the true relative sizes of countries overlaid in a darker shade. This illustrates how the standard Mercator projection distorts the size of landmasses, particularly those further from the equator, by showing the actual size differences. For example, Canada and Russia appear much smaller in their true relative size compared to their depiction in a standard Mercator projection.
Brilliant Maps

Map Projections: Mercator Vs The True Size of Each Country

Map found via reddit, click for larger versionWhile it's well known that the mercator projection distorts the world, the maps here show very clearly by how
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CaliCarol
CaliCarol
@jawarajabbi@mastodon.online  ·  activity timestamp last month

@infobeautiful

Can someone get this to POTUS?
#uspol

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JohnnieMac
JohnnieMac
@JohnnieMac@mastodon.scot  ·  activity timestamp last month

@infobeautiful This book is a great discussion of examples like this(the title is relevant to the current commentary) :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Lie_with_Maps

How to Lie with Maps - Wikipedia

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Fish Id Wardrobe
Fish Id Wardrobe
@fishidwardrobe@mastodon.me.uk  ·  activity timestamp last month

@infobeautiful slightly odd. i admit i don't understand, but why is, say, australia not as shrunk as canada? surely it's as far south of the equator as canada is north?

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Michael Dexter
Michael Dexter
@dexter@bsd.network  ·  activity timestamp last month

@infobeautiful Exquisite sub-toot.

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Mr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) 👤
Mr. Lance E Sloan (IRL) 👤
@sloanlance@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful
Which is which? Where's the key on this visualization?

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Toni Aittoniemi
Toni Aittoniemi
@gimulnautti@mastodon.green  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful i’m definitely a fan of the Peters Projection.

I clearly remember a 🤯 moment from first or second grade when I saw it for the first time!

Sorry, no caption provided by author
Sorry, no caption provided by author
Sorry, no caption provided by author
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Tor Lillqvist
Tor Lillqvist
@tml@mementomori.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful "Yet another"? Isn't that the one reason why people keep tutting at it all the time?

(And, sadly, many probably think that Mercator is the only projection with this particular distortion or that there are ideal projections that don't distort anything.)

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The Flight Attendant
The Flight Attendant
@CosmicTraveler@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful Someone please fwd this to trump

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Heliograph
Heliograph
@Heliograph@mastodon.au  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful oh look how tiny #murica really is... just like his hands kekw

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Bruce Heerssen
Bruce Heerssen
@bruce@darkmoon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

What this map shows is that America's penis (Florida) is much smaller than Americans think.

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sleepy62🍁🛠️ 🖥️ 🔬 🌞
sleepy62🍁🛠️ 🖥️ 🔬 🌞
@sleepy62@social.vivaldi.net  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

A very bad graphic. The point is taken but that map is very inaccurate. Eg the Canadian southern border should fit perfectly with the USA but it is shrink way too much. There are much better maps which account for there projection errors.

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Rob van Kan🔻
Rob van Kan🔻
@edgeofeurope@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful it all depends on what the purpose of the map is.

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�
�
@utf_7@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful https://realcountrysizes.com/

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quixote
quixote
@quixote@mastodon.nz  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful Very useful to see. Done by a professional, so I must be wrong, but where I am (north New Zealand) is at about the same latitude as San Francisco, but we seem to be less shrunk?

Re discussion about more realistic projections, my favourite is Cahill-Keyes. http://www.genekeyes.com/world_map_poster.html

world map showing countries and landmasses at approximately the shapes and sizes they really are, as if you carefully took scissors to the surface of the globe and cut it in a way that would let you lay it out as flat as possible.
world map showing countries and landmasses at approximately the shapes and sizes they really are, as if you carefully took scissors to the surface of the globe and cut it in a way that would let you lay it out as flat as possible.
world map showing countries and landmasses at approximately the shapes and sizes they really are, as if you carefully took scissors to the surface of the globe and cut it in a way that would let you lay it out as flat as possible.

Cahill-Keyes World Map Poster

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Alejandro_P
Alejandro_P
@Alejandro_P@mathstodon.xyz  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful Equadorians have no issue with this projection tho

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malte
malte
@malte@radikal.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful What would the "True Country Size Map" be called? I'm ready to orient myself toward something else than the Mercator map projection.

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Wintergreen
Wintergreen
@Wintergr33n@lingo.lol  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

Kazakhstan is huge, but it's not that huge.

Maybe I'm confused about what this is showing.

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Raven Luni
Raven Luni
@RavenLuni@furry.engineer  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful
Well Austrailia is wrong for a start since about 70% is desert / uninhabited

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BobDevney
BobDevney
@BobDevney@wandering.shop  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

Fascinating, thanks!

Here's obligatory link to great bit from TV's "The West Wing." Where cartographers compare Mercator versus Peters projections for stunned C.J. and Josh.

The head map guy is played with perfect drollery by the invaluable John Billingsley (Star Trek: Enterprise; The Man from Earth, etc.).

Cartographer: "Nothing's where you think it is."
C.J: "Where is it?"
Cartographer: "I'm glad you asked…"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3Xyz9MgDWA

#Maps #TV #Imperialism #Cartography

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John Q McDonald
John Q McDonald
@jqmcd@sfba.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful It’s like stepping out of a cold shower!

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Sassinake! - ⊃∪∩⪽
Sassinake! - ⊃∪∩⪽
@Sassinake@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

They gave some Eastern Canada provinces to the US. Don't comply in advance!

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Yoshimatsu ✅🇺🇸 🇺🇦
Yoshimatsu ✅🇺🇸 🇺🇦
@Yoshi@toot.community  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful MAGAmoron must use Mercator Projection when boasting to underage girls about his dick.

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Zeroday Podcast (stefan)
Zeroday Podcast (stefan)
@zeroday@podcasts.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful
Just learned something.

On the typical Map, that I had in school, the size of nealry every country was wrong.

Thx for this.

Now I have a new rabit-hole...

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Robin Barton
Robin Barton
@Robo105@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful always interesting to see how different maps tell different stories

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maxmoon 🌱
maxmoon 🌱
@utopify_org@veganism.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

The USA isn't that big, let's invade it!

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Annette Peter 🧜🏻‍♂️🦂🦁🇪🇺
Annette Peter 🧜🏻‍♂️🦂🦁🇪🇺
@Mons1serrata@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

Author of this map:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/people/neil-kaye

Met Office

Neil Kaye

Neil is a geographic information system (GIS) specialist who designs and delivers appropriate visualisations, GIS tools and analyses for a wide range of climate impact assessments
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Davey
Davey
@davey_cakes@mastodon.ie  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful ah sure Greenland is TINY.

Denmark should just hand it over and quit this dog in the manger stuff.

/s

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Toni Aittoniemi
Toni Aittoniemi
@gimulnautti@mastodon.green  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful Abolish this colonial remnant already!!

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Lokjo - a European online map
Lokjo - a European online map
@lokjo@mapstodon.space  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago

@infobeautiful

Can we see a map where it's flipped? I mean where the south is made bigger just as now the north is. Just to have a comparison of what we have been looking at all the time.

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