2026-09-05 13:23 UTC
@PeterLG@theblower.au Mercator gets the relative areas of regions at different latitudes 'wrong' but their shapes locally right: Africa in particular looks like it actually does (check it out in Meteosat and DSCOVR images ... or by looking at a globe from a distance). In the UN-'recommended' projection it is markedly distorted, however: how this is supposed to make Africans happy is beyond my understanding.
Replies (2)
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@jayalane@mastodon.online 2026-09-05 15:23
@cosmos4u@scicomm.xyz @PeterLG@theblower.au relative size does matter to people - I once showed someone from Sri Lanka that Sri Lanka is half the size of England and they were flabbergasted having been taught that England is large and Sri Lanka tiny.
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@PeterLG@theblower.au 2026-09-06 01:11
@cosmos4u@scicomm.xyz Because it's about *relative* size. Europe and North America have always been shown as being so much larger than they actually are in relation to the equatorial continents; kids everywhere learn that from the get-go. Such an impression makes a difference to the way one sees the reat of the world, both for those in the equatorial countries and the ones suffering an exaggerated image of their countries. It matters.