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For one thing there is massive distortion of relative distances in southern parts... New Zealand or Australia to Antarctica is something like 4 hours flight, no
by al452 10y ago
For one thing there is massive distortion of relative distances in southern parts... New Zealand or Australia to Antarctica is something like 4 hours flight, not halfway across the planet.
- GavinMcG 10y agoNot once you tesselate the maps
- hyperion2010 10y agoExcept for the fact that it tessellates so all you need to do is make the map a bit bigger and that distortion goes away (seen in [0]). 0. http://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/authagraph-world-map-2.jpg http://www.spoon-tamago.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/autha...
- Semiapies 10y agoA map shouldn't need an infinite series of other maps to be useful.
- hexane360 10y agoBut if you have an infinite series of maps (e.g. google maps) then using a projection that takes advantage of that is indeed useful.
- klodolph 10y agoYou're looking for a map where a straightish line gives you the direct path between two points? That's completely impossible. Flying from LA to Tokyo will take you over Alaska. Try to work that one out on a map. (Yeah, you can make a map where straight lines work, but only for a chosen point of origin or antipodes around that point.)
- jpatokal 10y agoThen why are you labeling it "completely impossible"? Here's a perfectly sensible straightish-line path between LAX and NRT, using a polar-aspect orthographic projection: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=LAX-NRT&MS=wls&MP=p&DU=mi http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=LAX-NRT&MS=wls&MP=p&DU=mi
- klodolph 10y agoYes, if you cherry pick the right projection for a particular route you'll get something like that, which is exactly what I said. But plot Johannesburg to Sydney on the same map. What I said is impossible is to have a map where all routes between pairs of points look sensible. It gets worse if you optimize for other factors, like making maps equal-area, conformal, rectilinear, etc.
- jpatokal 10y agohttp://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=JNB-SYD&MP=polar&DU=mi http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=JNB-SYD&MP=polar&DU=mi ? There's an easy way to make all routes between pairs of points look sensible at once: plot them on a 3D globe ;)
- blahedo 10y agoYou can see at the bottom of the second poster that the same projection admits different framings of the tesselation plane to reflect different purposes. The one in the triangle seems ideal to reflect a focus on Antarctica and indeed conveys the fact you mention.