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

It is time to 'Correct the Map'

correctthemap.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 42 posts

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#11

Post by bitmasher9 »

floppyd wrote: post #5

This is a very weird sounding pretense. Why does it matter if Africa in particular is bigger on the map compared to other countries and continents? How does area matter in general? It's not like we can infer anything useful from area comparisons. Also the map that is proposed (with the kinda-oval shape) is a map that I've seen a lot in school right next to now more common Mercator, and I'm from now here close to Afri…

It matters, especially for the perception of the less educated and less traveled (that happen to vote).

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#12

Post by robinhouston »

This sort of strident campaigning language is such an unhelpful framing in which to discuss the relative merits of different map projections.

Every world map must trade off between different types of distortion. There's no principled reason to demand a map perfectly respect relative area at the expense of other characteristics.

Personally for general world maps I typically prefer so-called ‘compromise’ pseudocylindrical projections such as Robinson, which try to minimise all types of distortion as much as possible, but even the much-maligned Mercator has its place.

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#13

Post by zveyaeyv3sfye »

I like the idea of questioning status quo, but not so sure this makes a whole lot of sense in 2025.

Meerkartor was developed to project a 3D GLOBE onto a flat surface.

We already have non-meerkartor projections such as the classic globe that should be found in every class-room, and modern digital variations such as Google Earth.

And the meerkartor projections we do use:

In USA, the meerkartor projection centers on the USA.

In europe, the meerkartor projection centers on Europe.

And in asia, guess where the center is?

Why can't Africa just start using their own projection too, with their preferences?

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#15

Post by grues-dinner »

While we're at it, why not move the default centre line so that it bisects one of these circles: https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/vastwz/the_smalles...

And you can definitely do that because a large proportion of maps sold in Asia do actually have Asia more or less in the middle.

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#16

Post by Zigurd »

floppyd wrote: post #5

This is a very weird sounding pretense. Why does it matter if Africa in particular is bigger on the map compared to other countries and continents? How does area matter in general? It's not like we can infer anything useful from area comparisons. Also the map that is proposed (with the kinda-oval shape) is a map that I've seen a lot in school right next to now more common Mercator, and I'm from now here close to Afri…

I hope it's not sticking my neck out too far to claim that a large majority of people think the Mercator projection is accurate, or they don't think about accuracy at all and take it for granted. For example, it makes Russia insanely enormous, and therefore more fearsome than it deserves.

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#17

Post by alanbernstein »

promiseofbeans wrote: post #9

Every 2D projection of a 3D surface will be wrong in some way. It's just a matter of which attributes you want yo compromise on and which you want to be accurate. As I understand it, Mercator mostly preserves relative distances between continents, at the expense of distorting continent shape & size. This is useful for ocean-based trade route calculation, which was a major concern when Mercator was introduced. Most re…

This site's claim is that it is important to Africa for other regions to normalize using projections other than Mercator.

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#18

Post by Zigurd »

robinhouston wrote: post #12

This sort of strident campaigning language is such an unhelpful framing in which to discuss the relative merits of different map projections. Every world map must trade off between different types of distortion. There's no principled reason to demand a map perfectly respect relative area at the expense of other characteristics. Personally for general world maps I typically prefer so-called ‘compromise’ pseudocylindri…

By some perfectly objective measure maybe it's more important to point out that white Jesus is a racist trope. But it's not a small issue either.

Re: It is time to 'Correct the Map'

#20

Post by bryanlarsen »

robinhouston wrote: post #12

This sort of strident campaigning language is such an unhelpful framing in which to discuss the relative merits of different map projections. Every world map must trade off between different types of distortion. There's no principled reason to demand a map perfectly respect relative area at the expense of other characteristics. Personally for general world maps I typically prefer so-called ‘compromise’ pseudocylindri…

P.S. The "Equal Earth" projection they're promoting is very similar to the Robinson projection you prefer.
Post reply on HN