We Have Been Misled By An Erroneous Map Of The World For 500 Years.

[dipsydoodle]

The West Wing clip which alludes to this here : http://www.upworthy.com/we-have-been-mislead-by-an-erroneous-map-of-the-world-for-500-years?g=3

[malaise]

1. I posted this weeks ago

It is fascinating.

[dipsydoodle]

3. I thought it may have been posted before

but had no idea what to search to confirm.



Off topic - I've had Pluto's Dat in my head for weeks now and can't get it out. Dat Rasta Ozzy from up de hill .........

[malaise]

4. Clearly you love pork

[Recursion]

2. Every equirectangular projection is equally misleading

but in different ways

http://xkcd.com/977/

[msanthrope]

23. Thank you for posting that!! Stealing and sending. nt

[Sentath]

36. Sigh

I have been known to type in Dvorak.

[Orrex]

5. What the hell do you have against Australia? Hmm?

By which I mean: holy shit--I've never seen the land masses arranged like this. Quite eye-opening.

To hear the media tell it, the US occupies 99.99% of the world's geography, with other nations dividing up the rest according to some esoteric system or another.

[GliderGuider]

8. And Canada?

But hey, why spoil a good (and useful) narrative with parochial cavils?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

6. Uh-huh!!!

[gopiscrap]

14. I am not sure I agree with you

[pinto]

15. Who are the "insane, racist Afrocentrists"?

[gopiscrap]

16. Welcome to DU

[Nye Bevan]

20. I assumed that Mercator loved Greenland and hated Africa.

There's really more to the story?

[Coyotl]

9. That is a great video clip

[Coyotl]

13. The West Wing is fiction and entertainment.

Try not to take it literally. It was meant to be funny and educational at the same time. I find this clip hilarious because "Everyone who managed to graduate high school is aware of the distortion that map projections create. It's not an "imperialist" conspiracy"

But hey, I'm only an "ignorant Afrocentrist"

[eShirl]

21. "You can't do that." "Why not?" "Because it's freaking me out."

[Coyotl]

30. Even more entertaining is the Troll removal swiftness

I've noticed a new troll tactic lately, general unpleasantness or as a psychologist might say, applied aversion therapy. There is a new tendency among the under 20 posters to just make this place unpleasant. I suspect it is directed at getting people to go elsewhere.

Of course, I'm just a delusional "Afrocentrist" so what do I know

[oldhippie]

22. Unfortunately, I don't think so ....

Everyone who managed to graduate high school is aware of the distortion that map projections create.

I know lots of high school graduates that have no concept of map distortions. They really don't teach much geography any more, much less cartography (which was, in fact, one of my favorite interests in high school.)

Welcome to DU.

[FarCenter]

25. Geography provides a framework for connecting many other subjects

Ecology, biology, history, economics, geology, and many other subjects all form a part of physical and human geography.

It really should be taught more.

[petronius]

27. + 1,000,000,000! But I'm a bit biased... (nt)

[oldhippie]

32. I remember spending a lot of time with geography in jr high .....

... back in the 50's. It was one of my favorite subjects. I loved maps.

[dixiegrrrrl]

42. Oh, it IS being taught more, indeed.

as Ambrose Bierce pointed out:
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography."

[FarCenter]

11. Population of Africa is 1 billion; population of US, EU, China, India, Japan is 3.5 billion

Maps depend on what you want to use them for.

The "distorted" Mercator projection is useful for navigation since straight lines are the path you travel on a constant bearing.

[Coyotl]

19. Actually, navigation is more complex, and great circles have changing bearings.

On a globe pull a string (or tesselate a line in Google Earth) to check the great circle from Beijing to the Isthmus between Central America and Mexico, an arc equal in length to the diameter of the earth. But first, do you think it falls north or south of Hawaii?

[FarCenter]

28. Before air travel, great circle routes were less important.

Gerardus Mercator - 1512 to 1594.

[Coyotl]

31. Sailing the ocean blue is no different if you want to take the shortest route between two points.

Sailors have to constantly change headings too in relation to the geographic reference frame while sailing in a straight line.

[FarCenter]

33. In sailing, currents, prevailing winds, and intervening land masses are also factors.

The least time route by sail is not necessarily the shortest distance route.

[HooptieWagon]

34. Steamships usually sail great circle routes.

Sailing ships usually follow the trade winds and favorable currents...which in some cases could be almost double the distance of great circle routes.

[Coyotl]

43. A great circle from Oaxaca to Thailand crosses the Bering Strait and Mt. McKinley.

It is quite interesting to note that the shortest route from tropical SE Asia to tropical America crosses the shortest water crossing between the two continents!

[HooptieWagon]

44. Thats against the current and trade winds, though.

A sailing ship or boat would get to Asia faster from Central America by heading south until the southeast trade winds are encountered (about the Equator) and then heading east. From San Francisco, head south until the northest trades are encountered, then east (which also avoids the Pacific High, a region of high pressure and light winds).
As another example, the great circle route from England to New York goes very close to Iceland and Greenland, and crosses Nova Scotia. However, the proper sailing route is south past the Azores to about 20deg N, then east almost to the West Indies, then NW to pass between Bermuda and Hatteras and on up to NY. A powered ship would take the great circle route, especially since they have radar to deal with the fog and icebergs west of Greenland.

[Coyotl]

46. That's not the point of the example. It's a straight walk on land all the way except the Bering St.

People navigate on land too.

[HooptieWagon]

47. You're welcome to walk.

I'll take a sailboat.

[Posteritatis]

39. It kind of absolutely was at any time prior to the late 1800s. (nt)

[pampango]

37. Africa is 1 billion, Europe-730 million, North America-530 million, South America-390 million.

Of course, Asia is 4.3 billion or 60% of the world's total population. Africa is the second most populous continent though Asia has more people than the rest of the world combined.

[FarCenter]

41. The population is concentrated mostly in south, southeast and east Asia

The majority of the world's population live in Iran, India, Thailand, Indonesia and China or the countries that border them.

Your figure for North America must include Central America and the Caribbean.

[Nye Bevan]

12. YES. Because in all of that time, nobody has ever looked at a globe. (nt)

[oldhippie]

17. Globes are only for elitists ........

You can't expect the normal working class dude to afford or comprehend a globe.

C'mon, how would you put a globe on a TV screen?

[gopiscrap]

18. Interesting

[petronius]

24. Maybe it's not about shrinking Africa, maybe it's about making Russia bigger

I mean, look at that giant splotch of Commie-red across the top - of course we need to buy more bombers!

But as others have pointed out, navigation was a major early purpose of the Mercator projection (although techniques have moved on since then) and shape-preservation is still an important strength. It's just not a real-good choice if relative land areas are of interest...

[HooptieWagon]

35. Yes. Mercator projection was to make plotting position easier.

Plotting celestial navigation fixes is easier when lines of longitude and latitude make rectangles on the chart. Then you can mark off degrees and minutes by using only two scales, one for lat and one for long.

[L0oniX]

26. This is really going to upset Lauren Caitlin Upton!

[dipsydoodle]

29. Looking back

she must hate herself for that epic.

Whether or not the questions were a surprise I've no means of knowing. I put it down to them not being a surprise and the poor girl fogging up her brain trying to recall what she'd intended to say.

Palin does the same.

[Posteritatis]

38. It's really fascinating how upset/defensive people get when maps are questioned. (nt)

[kentauros]

40. I prefer this map, though:

.

[Enthusiast]

48. Me too.

Plate tectonics is fascinating. This is a great resource. http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~rcb7/

[kentauros]

49. It is fascinating. And way over my head.

I loved physical geology class and learned a lot about this kind of thing, at least more than most reporters, anyway. And there are some bizarre things that go on in the mantel related to the plates above.

Thanks for the link! I'll have to look at it later this week (my home computer is being transferred to a new one.)

[JI7]

45. everytime i see the world map to scale i'm amazed at how huge Africa is