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It's kind of funny how the colonial convenience of having the 0 longitude line pass through Greenwich, UK ends up making Africa the most prominent place on the

It's kind of funny how the colonial convenience of having the 0 longitude line pass through Greenwich, UK ends up making Africa the most prominent place on the world map, since the centerpoint (0,0) is just off the African coast. This was true with Mercator as well, but Equal Earth emphasizes just how huge the African continent actually is.

gumby 25d ago
For a while, France had its own prime meridian with 0 degrees passing of course through Paris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_meridian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_meridian
- globular-toast 24d ago
  It still does. I have one going through my house too. The problem is nobody else knows or cares about those meridians. It's quite fortunate the US didn't invent its own, what with its zeal for being different. We're quite lucky to still have just the one.
  - gumby 24d ago
    Don’t give them ideas!
  - deleted 24d ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 24d ago
    [deleted]
hn993302 25d ago
Yeah, the prime meridian selection is the actually colonial part of the Mercator map. It's not like they were trying to make Europe look big, but they were trying to make London central.
- jameshart 24d ago
  The prime meridian being the least skewed area of the equal earth and Robinson projections, with their bulgy nature, actually serves to make them both offer somewhat inconvenient depictions of places like Alaska and New Zealand and Japan. Mercator is far more globally evenhanded in that regard, being a cylindrical projection.
ButlerianJihad 24d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_meridians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_meridians The Washington meridians are four meridians that were used as prime meridians in the United States which pass through Washington, D.C.
- ks2048 24d ago
  Sounds like a decent name for a sports team - should have used that instead of Commanders.
- decimalenough 24d ago
  Don't give Trump any ideas.
  - t-3 24d ago
    The Meridian of America... coming soon on a limited edition Golden Map of America. Featuring all 244 American States!
- somat 24d ago
  This is the source of my favorite border dispute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe#Interstate_boundary_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe#Interstate_boundary... In summary there is a border dispute between California and Nevada, It was exacerbated by some surveying errors but the real problem appears to be the definitions of the sate borders, California was defined using one method(120 degrees longitude west of Greenwich) and Nevada was defined using another method (37 degrees longitude west of Washington) at the time it was thought these two methods were equivalent but it later turned out they are not. Congress does not have the authority to change state borders so it is up to the states to reach an agreement. and they have not. So the dispute is still technically on going. Researching this also lead to the most hilarious passive aggressive thing I have seen in a constitution. "All territory lying West of and adjoining the boundary line herein prescribed, which the State of California may relinquish to the Territory or State of Nevada, shall thereupon be embraced within and constitute a part of this State." We really wanted that area east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, they would form a perfect natural boundary, but CA has already claimed it. If CA ever wants to give it up we want to make sure it is explicitly in the constitution to accept it.
JuniperMesos 24d ago
The location of the 0 longitude line has less to do with the British colonial empire as such, and more to do with the fact that the British were the first people on Earth to invent a way of measuring longitude at sea accurately (John Harrison's famous marine chronometer). Of course these are ultimately related facts - the same package of technology that allowed the British to produce people like John Harrison who were capable of innovating a marine chronometer also allowed them to produce ocean-going ships that could conquer a global maritime colonial empire (and that had a use for marine chronometers). There was in fact a rival 0 longitude line passing through Paris, France, that the French used for many years before standardizing on the British system; although this system would equally have resulted in the 0,0 point being somewhere in the ocean west of the African coast.
- thaumasiotes 24d ago
  > Of course these are ultimately related facts - the same package of technology that allowed the British to produce people like John Harrison who were capable of innovating a marine chronometer also allowed them to produce ocean-going ships that could conquer a global maritime colonial empire (and that had a use for marine chronometers). The causality you gloss over seems to be more important than the causality you'd like us to focus on. The ships came first. Empire -> need for chronometers -> chronometers.
- flohofwoe 24d ago
  > and more to do with the fact that the British were the first people on Earth to invent a way of measuring longitude at sea accurately ...OTH if Britain wouldn't have been a globe-spanning empire, they wouldn't have needed a more precise way to measure longitude, and probably wouldn't have invented it ;) E.g. the Brits had built a whole government body around the task, which then resulted in a competition, with Harrison's chronometer coming out as winner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Longitude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Longitude
oofabz 24d ago
In an alternate reality, the prime meridian could have been chosen to pass through Florence, making 180° and the edges of the world map pass cleanly through the Bering Strait.
prmph 24d ago
Well, I'm sure people wish Africa wasn't so smack dab in the center, haha. But, you can't ignore it without making Europe also peripheral, not unless you exchange longitude for latitude and vice versa. And fun fact, Ghana is the country closest to point where the prime meridian intersects the equator.

gumby 25d ago

For a while, France had its own prime meridian with 0 degrees passing of course through Paris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_meridian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_meridian

globular-toast 24d ago
It still does. I have one going through my house too. The problem is nobody else knows or cares about those meridians. It's quite fortunate the US didn't invent its own, what with its zeal for being different. We're quite lucky to still have just the one.
- gumby 24d ago
  Don’t give them ideas!
- deleted 24d ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 24d ago
  [deleted]

hn993302 25d ago

Yeah, the prime meridian selection is the actually colonial part of the Mercator map. It's not like they were trying to make Europe look big, but they were trying to make London central.

jameshart 24d ago
The prime meridian being the least skewed area of the equal earth and Robinson projections, with their bulgy nature, actually serves to make them both offer somewhat inconvenient depictions of places like Alaska and New Zealand and Japan. Mercator is far more globally evenhanded in that regard, being a cylindrical projection.

ButlerianJihad 24d ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_meridians https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_meridians The Washington meridians are four meridians that were used as prime meridians in the United States which pass through Washington, D.C.

ks2048 24d ago
Sounds like a decent name for a sports team - should have used that instead of Commanders.
decimalenough 24d ago
Don't give Trump any ideas.
- t-3 24d ago
  The Meridian of America... coming soon on a limited edition Golden Map of America. Featuring all 244 American States!
somat 24d ago
This is the source of my favorite border dispute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe#Interstate_boundary_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe#Interstate_boundary... In summary there is a border dispute between California and Nevada, It was exacerbated by some surveying errors but the real problem appears to be the definitions of the sate borders, California was defined using one method(120 degrees longitude west of Greenwich) and Nevada was defined using another method (37 degrees longitude west of Washington) at the time it was thought these two methods were equivalent but it later turned out they are not. Congress does not have the authority to change state borders so it is up to the states to reach an agreement. and they have not. So the dispute is still technically on going. Researching this also lead to the most hilarious passive aggressive thing I have seen in a constitution. "All territory lying West of and adjoining the boundary line herein prescribed, which the State of California may relinquish to the Territory or State of Nevada, shall thereupon be embraced within and constitute a part of this State." We really wanted that area east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, they would form a perfect natural boundary, but CA has already claimed it. If CA ever wants to give it up we want to make sure it is explicitly in the constitution to accept it.

JuniperMesos 24d ago

The location of the 0 longitude line has less to do with the British colonial empire as such, and more to do with the fact that the British were the first people on Earth to invent a way of measuring longitude at sea accurately (John Harrison's famous marine chronometer). Of course these are ultimately related facts - the same package of technology that allowed the British to produce people like John Harrison who were capable of innovating a marine chronometer also allowed them to produce ocean-going ships that could conquer a global maritime colonial empire (and that had a use for marine chronometers). There was in fact a rival 0 longitude line passing through Paris, France, that the French used for many years before standardizing on the British system; although this system would equally have resulted in the 0,0 point being somewhere in the ocean west of the African coast.

thaumasiotes 24d ago
> Of course these are ultimately related facts - the same package of technology that allowed the British to produce people like John Harrison who were capable of innovating a marine chronometer also allowed them to produce ocean-going ships that could conquer a global maritime colonial empire (and that had a use for marine chronometers). The causality you gloss over seems to be more important than the causality you'd like us to focus on. The ships came first. Empire -> need for chronometers -> chronometers.
flohofwoe 24d ago
> and more to do with the fact that the British were the first people on Earth to invent a way of measuring longitude at sea accurately ...OTH if Britain wouldn't have been a globe-spanning empire, they wouldn't have needed a more precise way to measure longitude, and probably wouldn't have invented it ;) E.g. the Brits had built a whole government body around the task, which then resulted in a competition, with Harrison's chronometer coming out as winner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Longitude https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_of_Longitude

oofabz 24d ago

In an alternate reality, the prime meridian could have been chosen to pass through Florence, making 180° and the edges of the world map pass cleanly through the Bering Strait.

prmph 24d ago

Well, I'm sure people wish Africa wasn't so smack dab in the center, haha. But, you can't ignore it without making Europe also peripheral, not unless you exchange longitude for latitude and vice versa. And fun fact, Ghana is the country closest to point where the prime meridian intersects the equator.