Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mercator Puzzle

gmaps-samples.googlecode.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 96 posts

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#41

Post by ColinWright »

mbq wrote: post #38
ColinWright wrote: post #36

Fantastic. As a bonus side-effect, people never believe me when I tell them Australia is bigger than Europe, and this will let them play and see it for themselves.

Actually, Australia is smaller than Europe (in means of the area) -- its 7.7M(km^2) to 10.2M(km^2).

Depends on what you think of as the boundaries of Europe - the area quoted includes areas of land that many people I speak with don't include.

It's easiest just to let people overlay the map.

Added in edit: Europe does in fact extend a lot further North-East than people think, and when you include that area - yes - Europe is bigger. The actual overlay still surprises people.

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#42

Post by InclinedPlane »

mbq wrote: post #38
ColinWright wrote: post #36

Fantastic. As a bonus side-effect, people never believe me when I tell them Australia is bigger than Europe, and this will let them play and see it for themselves.

Actually, Australia is smaller than Europe (in means of the area) -- its 7.7M(km^2) to 10.2M(km^2).

I imagine he means Europe sans Russia, which is true.

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#43

Post by drbig »

I would really like to see it with random selection of countries every time your reload the page - and then to see it in primary schools during geography lessons - that would be a killer!

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#44

Post by hartror »

sethbannon wrote: post #18

This reminds me of this great segment from the West Wing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zBC2dvERM

Seriously, I need to watch West Wing I think someone posts an awesome and politically relevant clip on HN once a month (that I see and watch).

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#46

Post by [deleted] »

jasondavies wrote: post #25
jemfinch wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is an externally visible link: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/A2ygEJ5eG... . It's the answer I received when I filed an internal bug on this. "Hi John - Thanks for the feedback. Maps uses Mercator because it preserves angles. The first launch of Maps actually did not use Mercator, and streets in high latitude places like Stockholm did not meet at right angles on the map the way they d…

Yes, there are two properties that are important for Google Maps: 1. Mercator is conformal, which means angles are preserved. So if you zoom into any small part of the map, it will look right. Equal-area maps distort angles. 2. North is always in the same direction—up. Together with the conformal property, it means that all directions are preserved: North, South, and everything else. The primary use case for Google M…

[deleted]

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#47

Post by madaxe »

zokier wrote: post #21

Does anyone know why Google insists on Mercator projection? I guess that it makes the implementation bit simpler, but on the other hand you'd imagine that if anyone then Google would have the resources to use some more reasonable projection for greater good.

Because making the US look smaller is not politically astute in a jingoistic you're-with-us-or-you're-against-us patriotic state.

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#48

Post by pavlov »

As a Finn, I'm thankful for Mercator's contribution to improving Finnish self-esteem. It's an insignificant corner of Europe with less people than most Chinese cities nobody has ever heard of, but at least it looks big on the map!

Re: Mercator Puzzle

#49

Post by rjh29 »

a3_nm wrote: post #30
jemfinch wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is an externally visible link: http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/A2ygEJ5eG... . It's the answer I received when I filed an internal bug on this. "Hi John - Thanks for the feedback. Maps uses Mercator because it preserves angles. The first launch of Maps actually did not use Mercator, and streets in high latitude places like Stockholm did not meet at right angles on the map the way they d…

Not sure if this makes sense, but couldn't they have different projections for different zoom levels?

Yes, and considering that Google Maps can use WebGL with vector graphics, it would be seamless.
Post reply on HN