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> Countries closer to the equator—which happen to be poorer1—seem smaller than they are. Depends on the projection you use and its parameters. The "Web Mercato
by slibhb 3y ago
> Countries closer to the equator—which happen to be poorer1—seem smaller than they are.
Depends on the projection you use and its parameters. The "Web Mercator is racist" meme is just lazy.
One way around the issue is rendering a globe on a screen. Google maps does this when you zoom out far enough. By the same token, if you're using a screen, it's possible to dynamically reproject a map based on whatever is centered.
- nwallin 3y ago> The "Web Mercator is racist" meme is just lazy. It is lazy, but here's a good reason to not use Web Mercator: Unlike regular Mercator, Web Mercator is not conformal. Mercator preserves shape locally, but Web Mercator distorts shapes by +/- 1%-ish depending on latitude. Web Mercator doesn't do the thing that makes Mercator a good projection. Does that +/- 1%-ish actually matter? Maybe, I dunno. It annoys me though.
- oakashes 3y ago> One way around the issue is rendering a globe on a screen. Google maps does this when you zoom out far enough. This isn't a way around the issue because the screen is two-dimensional so you are still showing a projection of the globe. I think Google uses the perspective projection when you zoom out enough.
- slibhb 3y agoUsing a perspective projection works because our brains automatically understand the distortions caused by that sort of projection and account for them. Reprojecting on-the-fly is a way around it. Yes, you're still projecting to two dimensions but it drives home the point that the area of a landmass is relative depending on what the user is looking at. Something like: https://observablehq.com/d/539403a9237e737d https://observablehq.com/d/539403a9237e737d