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Mercator v Reality (i.imgur.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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With a human face

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It’s great for navigating at sea, but bad for looking at the world as a whole. Nowadays most people use maps for the latter; hence the complaints.

[–] Repelle 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Sure, that’s why I qualified with “for its intended purpose”. It’s not a great classroom map but it is perhaps the most historically important projection. The problem is this idea of “Mercator bad” has entered public consciousness. For example, the start of this thread mentioned “how not-great the mercator is” without any such qualifications.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Maybe one day I’ll get a Cahill-Keyes projection on the wall. I think it’s useful to see how surface areas compare.

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