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Google Maps is no longer a flat map

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31–40 of 173 posts

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#31

I wonder what the long term geopolitical consequences will be when we all stop looking at projected maps. That small peninsula to the west of Asia just got a little smaller. A certain island kingdom is now more clearly the size of Uganda. Maybe Google can also flip the globe "upside-down" for all users "below" the equator.

Australian maps are shown with Oz in the middle, and the pacific / indian oceas each side, with South East Asia and Antarctia surrounding, exactly the same way US maps put the US in the center.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#32
You can see the difference between Africa, Congo and Greenland as mentioned in the article: https://imgur.com/a/g7uIYGN

Greenland is the size of Congo, around 2,2 million km2 while entire Africa is around 30 million km2. Europe being around 10 and North America 24 million km2.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#33
post #4

"On flat maps, it’s impossible to represent land mass size on a relative scale." Um, no it's not. TechCrunch needs better editors. You just need to use a non-Mercator projection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall%E2%80%93Peters_projection

it's a theorem of differential geometry that we cannot have a (perfectly) accurate 2d map of the earth.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#35
post #4

"On flat maps, it’s impossible to represent land mass size on a relative scale." Um, no it's not. TechCrunch needs better editors. You just need to use a non-Mercator projection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall%E2%80%93Peters_projection

That's still not an accurate map. 3D maps don't have projection issues, they can have near perfect representation of the world.

The eyes see a 2-dimensional picture. Computer displays produce a 2-dimensional picture. There is no such thing as a “3D map” on a standard computer display. Only an orthographic (or maybe perspective) projection which animates in response to user input.

In general an orthographic projection is a poor choice. The thing going for it is that it is easy to understand by analogy to a physical globe, and human spatial understanding can partially compensate for the distortion by imagining a sphere.

But there are also disadvantages, for example on an orthographic projection north is not always vertical, latitude and longitude lines are neither perpendicular nor straight, shapes and areas can be very dramatically distorted near the edge of the map, there are dramatic distance errors between far away points or points not in the center of view, it is impossible to view more than half of the planet’s surface in one view, etc.

There are many other choices of map projections, and for any particular purpose, some other projection is usually better.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#37

I wonder what the long term geopolitical consequences will be when we all stop looking at projected maps. That small peninsula to the west of Asia just got a little smaller. A certain island kingdom is now more clearly the size of Uganda. Maybe Google can also flip the globe "upside-down" for all users "below" the equator.

A generation growing up on this will probably be less likely to believe in a flat earth, since the intuition will develop from the time they first start looking at maps.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#38
post #4

"On flat maps, it’s impossible to represent land mass size on a relative scale." Um, no it's not. TechCrunch needs better editors. You just need to use a non-Mercator projection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall%E2%80%93Peters_projection

From the first line of the article.

The Gall–Peters projection is a rectangular map projection that maps all areas such that they have the correct sizes relative to each other. Like any equal-area projection, it achieves this goal by distorting most shapes.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can represent size or shape correctly, not both. Anyone who uses the Gall-Peters projection is a cop.

Obligatory XKCD https://www.xkcd.com/977/

Your username is obsolete in Ubuntu. It simply gives an error message.

Re: Google Maps is no longer a flat map

#40
It even allows you to see satelite pictures of other planets! I'm not sure how old is that feature, but it's awesome.

You just have to unzoom far away from earth and it'll show you a menu where you can choose where you want to go.

https://www.google.com/maps/space/mercury/@47.5337211,-157.4...

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