5 ms·
I know this is a stupid comment, but looking at the site really made me appreciate how far north the UK actually is.
by BuildTheRobots 5y ago
I know this is a stupid comment, but looking at the site really made me appreciate how far north the UK actually is.
- ghaff 5y agoThe Gulf Stream really throws off intuitions of how North America and Europe line up with each other.
- paxys 5y agoAnd the Mercator projection.
- _Microft 5y agoMercator projection does not influence how far north something appears on a map. It is making the UK appear relatively larger than it is to the US though. This is because it is not an equal-area projection and warps areas further from the equator (UK) more than the ones closer (US).
- paxys 5y agoIt absolutely does. Looking at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Mercator_projection_Square.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Mercator..., it would seem that the UK is a bit north of the equator, but comfortably within the "center".
- _Microft 5y agoOK, I see what you mean, you were just referring to the unintuitive mapping between latitude and position on the map.
- pkaye 5y agoYou can compare the sizes of countries using this website. https://thetruesize.com/ https://thetruesize.com/
- divbzero 5y agoAlso makes me wonder: Are there analogs to the Gulf Stream in other parts of our oceans? Currents bringing warm water to otherwise cooler regions?
- Retric 5y agoYes, Japan for example also receives warm ocean currents though Europe experiences the most extreme impact from this effect. The eastern portion of South American has warm ocean currents but they break off before reaching the southern tip. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3652 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3652
- SiVal 5y agoYes, though I've seen it many times on maps, from the air, and on the ground, I still imagine going directly east from Silicon Valley, across the US, through Virginia, and across the Atlantic ought to end up close to London or Paris. No. That path will take you to northern Tunisia in North Africa.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- thatguyagain 5y agoSame here! Also, for some reason it made me think about what an interesting place the Arctic Ocean is, lol.