4 ms·

Mercator projection striking again. The largest surprise for me (besides the massive size of Africa and South America of course) was that Australia has roughly

by xg15 2y ago

Mercator projection striking again. The largest surprise for me (besides the massive size of Africa and South America of course) was that Australia has roughly the same area as the entire US. Somehow I had always imagined it smaller.

mrweasel 2y ago
Brazil is the largest surprise for me. It's an absolute massive country.
- andretf 2y ago
  Wikipedia says contiguous USA is smaller, 95% of Brazil size.
- lucasoshiro 2y ago
  Not only in area, but also in population: about 200 million, 2/3 of the USA population. The population of our 5 largest cities (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Fortaleza, Salvador, Belo Horizonte) is bigger than the 5 largest cities of the USA (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix): https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_munic%C3%ADpios_do_Brasil_acima_de_cem_mil_habitantes_(2022) https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_munic%C3%ADpios_do_Br...
HdS84 2y ago
I wish schools would stop using it so much. Mercator is useful, yes. But having good size comparisons is much more important for most everyday tasks.
- pif 2y ago
  A flat map on a wall does not take any three-dimensional space. You can't say the same for a globe, though!
- Sharlin 2y ago
  It's useful for navigation in the open ocean without satnav or even a chronometer, which is what it was designed for in the 1500s. Not for much else. Is the use of Mercator in schools common, globally? Based on what I've read on the internet it's common in the US, but I have no idea about other countries. In Finland I think I only ever saw Robinson or Winkel-tripel type compromise projections. Mercator was maybe used as an example of how projections distort things.
  - scbrg 2y ago
    Huh. Swede here. Went to school in the 80:ies and 90:ies. Only ever saw Mercator. Perhaps things have changed since.
  - HdS84 2y ago
    German is Mercator only. Learned about different projection on the internet years after school
    - blueflow 2y ago
      Is (was?) in Geographie Gymnasium Klasse 6 or 7.
      - HdS84 2y ago
        I only visited Realschüler and switched to gymnasium in 11. Tbh I don't remember much of my geography lessons, was not my primary interest in school
  - QuesnayJr 2y ago
    It preserves angles, which is what makes it useful in navigation. Mercator is bad at relative sizes for places far apart, but when you look at a small patch shapes are less distorted. For that reason, online maps use a version of Mercator.
  - globular-toast 2y ago
    I thought Mercator became popular due to online maps like Google using it. It's convenient for tiles because it's square. I don't think I've ever seen a Mercator map of the world printed out, though. Is that seriously a thing? It looks completely ridiculous. Every poster I've seen has been a more rectangular projection like Robinson.
- xg15 2y ago
  I wonder if Mercator maps that aren't aligned with the equator would already do the trick. (pinging Randall Munroe)
- blueflow 2y ago
  Which everyday tasks?
alluro2 2y ago
Wow - in my head, Australia was somehow ~20-25% the size of US (I'm from Europe) - really surprising, and shows how misleading the projection can be in this regard.
kmoser 2y ago
I was really surprised that China isn't much bigger than the US. I always assumed it was about twice as large.
- maxglute 2y ago
  The real surprise is ~95% lives on 1/3 of that land. Other 1/3 is plateau, 1/3 is desert. An extra dumb derrived stat I like is about ~25% of the worlds smokers are concentrated on ~0.6% of earth's land mass (that 1/3 of PRC).
sandworm101 2y ago
Australia and Canada are both slightly bigger but if you consider population density they are immense territories. Then there is Russia, which is in a league of its own. You don't see many "Check fuel. Next gas, xxx miles" signs in the US.
- perilunar 2y ago
  > "Check fuel. Next gas, xxx miles" You don't see that in Australia either: we don't use miles, and we don't call it 'gas'. Typically it would be "No fuel next X km"
  - Nursie 2y ago
    One of the rules I came up with while driving the coast of Aus a good while ago was just "always fill up". Oh and also "carry a jerry can of spare fuel" The first bit came after one day when I skipped a servo and then it was over half my remaining fuel further along the road, I hadn't seen another and I realised "well I can't go back. Shit." The second bit got expanded to two jerry cans after I had to use one because even though I made it to the servo in rural FNQ, it was 5.15pm and they were already closed. Thankfully that day the extra 20l got me to Port Douglas. We do still have a few remnants of the imperial system - "90 mile straight" on the Nullabor comes to mind. The longest straight road in Aus, or maybe the world I don't know. When you're already suffering brainrot on your multi-day Nullabor drive, the announcement that you're not even going to have to turn the steering wheel for over an hour is... well it didn't fill me with joy!
    - perilunar 2y ago
      There's an awful lot of "X Mile Beach"-es in Aus. See: https://thepeoplesrepublicofcouch.org/beaches/ https://thepeoplesrepublicofcouch.org/beaches/

by xg15 2y ago

mrweasel 2y ago

Brazil is the largest surprise for me. It's an absolute massive country.

andretf 2y ago
Wikipedia says contiguous USA is smaller, 95% of Brazil size.
lucasoshiro 2y ago
Not only in area, but also in population: about 200 million, 2/3 of the USA population. The population of our 5 largest cities (São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Fortaleza, Salvador, Belo Horizonte) is bigger than the 5 largest cities of the USA (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix): https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_munic%C3%ADpios_do_Brasil_acima_de_cem_mil_habitantes_(2022) https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_munic%C3%ADpios_do_Br...

HdS84 2y ago

I wish schools would stop using it so much. Mercator is useful, yes. But having good size comparisons is much more important for most everyday tasks.

pif 2y ago
A flat map on a wall does not take any three-dimensional space. You can't say the same for a globe, though!
Sharlin 2y ago
It's useful for navigation in the open ocean without satnav or even a chronometer, which is what it was designed for in the 1500s. Not for much else. Is the use of Mercator in schools common, globally? Based on what I've read on the internet it's common in the US, but I have no idea about other countries. In Finland I think I only ever saw Robinson or Winkel-tripel type compromise projections. Mercator was maybe used as an example of how projections distort things.
- scbrg 2y ago
  Huh. Swede here. Went to school in the 80:ies and 90:ies. Only ever saw Mercator. Perhaps things have changed since.
- HdS84 2y ago
  German is Mercator only. Learned about different projection on the internet years after school
  - blueflow 2y ago
    Is (was?) in Geographie Gymnasium Klasse 6 or 7.
    - HdS84 2y ago
      I only visited Realschüler and switched to gymnasium in 11. Tbh I don't remember much of my geography lessons, was not my primary interest in school
- QuesnayJr 2y ago
  It preserves angles, which is what makes it useful in navigation. Mercator is bad at relative sizes for places far apart, but when you look at a small patch shapes are less distorted. For that reason, online maps use a version of Mercator.
- globular-toast 2y ago
  I thought Mercator became popular due to online maps like Google using it. It's convenient for tiles because it's square. I don't think I've ever seen a Mercator map of the world printed out, though. Is that seriously a thing? It looks completely ridiculous. Every poster I've seen has been a more rectangular projection like Robinson.
xg15 2y ago
I wonder if Mercator maps that aren't aligned with the equator would already do the trick. (pinging Randall Munroe)
blueflow 2y ago
Which everyday tasks?

alluro2 2y ago

Wow - in my head, Australia was somehow ~20-25% the size of US (I'm from Europe) - really surprising, and shows how misleading the projection can be in this regard.

kmoser 2y ago

I was really surprised that China isn't much bigger than the US. I always assumed it was about twice as large.

maxglute 2y ago
The real surprise is ~95% lives on 1/3 of that land. Other 1/3 is plateau, 1/3 is desert. An extra dumb derrived stat I like is about ~25% of the worlds smokers are concentrated on ~0.6% of earth's land mass (that 1/3 of PRC).

sandworm101 2y ago

Australia and Canada are both slightly bigger but if you consider population density they are immense territories. Then there is Russia, which is in a league of its own. You don't see many "Check fuel. Next gas, xxx miles" signs in the US.

perilunar 2y ago
> "Check fuel. Next gas, xxx miles" You don't see that in Australia either: we don't use miles, and we don't call it 'gas'. Typically it would be "No fuel next X km"
- Nursie 2y ago
  One of the rules I came up with while driving the coast of Aus a good while ago was just "always fill up". Oh and also "carry a jerry can of spare fuel" The first bit came after one day when I skipped a servo and then it was over half my remaining fuel further along the road, I hadn't seen another and I realised "well I can't go back. Shit." The second bit got expanded to two jerry cans after I had to use one because even though I made it to the servo in rural FNQ, it was 5.15pm and they were already closed. Thankfully that day the extra 20l got me to Port Douglas. We do still have a few remnants of the imperial system - "90 mile straight" on the Nullabor comes to mind. The longest straight road in Aus, or maybe the world I don't know. When you're already suffering brainrot on your multi-day Nullabor drive, the announcement that you're not even going to have to turn the steering wheel for over an hour is... well it didn't fill me with joy!
  - perilunar 2y ago
    There's an awful lot of "X Mile Beach"-es in Aus. See: https://thepeoplesrepublicofcouch.org/beaches/ https://thepeoplesrepublicofcouch.org/beaches/