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Mercator v Reality
(i.imgur.com)
With a human face
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this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024
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It sucks that mercator became the standard map. I know basically nothing about maps, but i know how not-great mercator is. Of the little i know about cartography I like Winkel Tripel the best
Dln't quote me on this, but from what I've heard, the Mercador projection became standard because it's good for navigating since qit conserves angles. Draw a strait line depicting your current trajectory and another the trajectory that would get you where you want, measure the angle between them, and that's the actual angle you need to turn.
Yeah, it’s actually a really great map for its purpose of navigation, which is a pretty damn important aspect of map usage. I’m tired of everyone shitting on it because of that scene in west wing.
Which scene is that?
https://youtu.be/vVX-PrBRtTY?si=EJI98A0zZR6zkURc Im sure there were people who felt this way before this episode, but it really exploded in public consciousness afterward.