You must log in or # to comment.
in case there are others like me who have to see what it looks like on a Mercator projection map:
Wow. I can’t believe my perspective of the world is that distorted. It makes me want to only look at it in 3D. If we’ve all mainly looked at Mercator projections our whole lives our sense of where everything is relative to everything else and what direction is completely off.
People complain about the proportional sizing of Mercator but the sense of direction it gives us is completely broken. I think the average person knows it’s off and people think there is an error factor to consider that a really straight like might be a little squiggly. But nope. This made me realize the Mercator gives pretty much zero accurate sense of direction if real distance is involved.
People complain about the proportional sizing of Mercator but the sense of direction it gives us is completely broken.
With respect, this is silly. People complain about the proportional sizing of the Mercator projection because disproportionate sizing is literally the only problem with the Mercator projection.
The sense of direction being off has got literally nothing to do with Mercator. That’s an inherent drawback of trying to project a three dimensional globe onto a 2D image. Literally every single projection has this exact problem, in one form or another. It is considered ot be an acceptable trade-off for not having to work with globes all the time.
Stop looking for yet more baseless reasons to bash the Mercator projection, which is a perfectly reasonable and acceptable projection to use within its intended usecase (which this specific example literally is).
So would there be turning involved still orrrrr?
You’re constantly, gradually turning downward, technically.
Actually not turning would be falling. You are constantly being turned upward.
what
no, that’s a straight line
Can we have a map projection/grid system where this uh, great circle, is the prime meridian, defines the new ‘poles’ via another 90 degree orthogonal great circle that touches both actual poles?
The word “can” Is doing some heavy lifting here. I mean, there is a difference between theoretically possible and actually being done.
That southern ocean is brutal tho
Especially going the wrong direction!
It’d be less bad on the return trip, but then you’re fighting the trade winds and the Canary current instead.
Just rename it as Pacific Ocean and voila, no storm hence the name!
Now all we need is some insane person with a kayak.
I volunteer— not like you go through most dangerous sea passage in the world or anything…
This kind of kayak. No exceptions, I don’t make the rules.
You could probably convince him if you just pretend you’re not impressed.
If it makes you feel better, the line is actually curved along the surface of the earth, you know, if you believe in a spherical earth.
Nah. I’ve come to believe it’s shaped like Dick Cheney’s black, twisted heart.
A void doesn’t have a shape
The earth is obviously a sac of 1 dimensional space.
There is also a route that can be drawn from Halifax, Nova Scotia on the Canadian east coast on the Atlantic … head a bit south east and without touching land and only going over the ocean, you can end up on the west coast of British Columbia, in Canada on the Pacific coast.
I used to reference a website that showed that … but now I can’t seem to find it. :(
Another fun one is to ask someone if they were to take off in an airplane from Miami and fly due south, which South American countries would they fly over?
The answer is none of them. You end up missing the entire continent because you are too far west.
You hit Panama first, but small portions of Ecuador and Peru are west of Miami (80.2 degrees west). The broader point that South America is much farther east than many Americans think is definitely true, though.
Does work for Tampa though
To expand on this idea: the most eastern part of the South American continent (Brazil) and the most western part of Iceland are only about 10° longitude apart. Meanwhile, Iceland shares lines of longitude with a number of countries in western Africa.
??? … da fuck??? … I was going to correct you when you said “too far west”
Now my brain is broken :(
I looked at that on Google Earth, now I’m uncomfortable in two directions…
Hopefully someone shares this with Geowizard, ultimate straight line challenge.
You can also build a nearly straight railway going from California through Canada and Alaska all the way to China.
That’d be awesome. That probably wouldn’t work because it would take 100 years for California to build their first high speed rail
The USA-Russia border crossing might prove troublesome. Also, keeping railways running through the middle of Siberia in an operational state all year round would be challenging.
Also, keeping railways running through the middle of Siberia in an operational state all year round would be challenging.
Definitely don’t let Deutsche Bahn handle that part
Die Verbindung fällt heute aus. Grund dafür ist 1mm Schneefall auf den Gleisen.
Ahh, die vier Feinde der Deutschen Bahn. Frühling, Sommer, Herbst und Winter.
You can plot a course in a straight line. Unfortunately, weather.
I’m no sailing historian, but that’s probably how they actually discovered New Zealand.
“Heya mates, how’bout we be goin’ straight ahead 'til back’ome we arrrggggh!!”
One of the few world maps with New Zealand on it.
Fun fact, the UK is about the center of the land hemisphere and new Zealand is about the center of the water hemisphere
This is my new favorite globe trivia.
Only with an icebreaker
Math nerds are going to have a field day with this statement haha.
