Editing 2613: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This is | + | {{incomplete|Created by MADAGASCAR (2005) - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
+ | This is another comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] series. This time, Randall used the classic {{w|Mercator projection}} but instead of placing the North Pole on top and the South Pole on the bottom it is oriented so that the top is the island of {{w|Mahé, Seychelles|Mahé}}. The map projection is technically a {{w|Oblique Mercator projection}}, with an unusual choice of the cylinder's axis. Since the Mercator projection tends to visually distort areas near the top and bottom of the resulting map, this gives some areas, notably Madagascar, very unusual shapes. | ||
− | + | The Mercator projection became the standard projection for world maps during the 1800s because it is ''conformal of normal aspect'': a {{w|rhumb line}} is displayed as a straight line in a Mercator map. During the age of sail, when navigation was performed by compass - this was a very valuable feature, since one could plot a course between two locations by measuring the direction from one to another on the map and then accounting for the difference between the magnetic and actual north poles to determine which rhumb should be taken. In the mid-20th century this trend was {{w|Mercator_projection#Criticism|criticized}} because the distortion towards the north and south poles gave an inaccurate impression of relative sizes. The most common example given of this distortion is that on a Mercator map of the world Greenland looks to have more area than Africa, when in real life Africa covers 14 times that of Greenland. Thus the reference to making Madagascar larger in this projection. Madagascar is a large island off the south east coast of the main African continent, but has only a quarter the coverage of Greenland. Greenland is often listed as the largest island in the world (which excludes continents in their own right, e.g. Australia) followed by New Guinea, Borneo and then Madagascar in fourth place. | |
− | The | + | Mahé, mentioned in the title text as the north pole's new location, is the largest island in Seychelles, with an area of 60.7 square miles. The claim in the title text, however, that it is "larger than the rest of the Earth's land area combined", is hard to verify when it is not actually displayed in the projection. That is, if you limit yourself to the comic. Clicking on the actual comic will open a website that displays Mercator projections with the North Pole transplanted to various locations, with the location of the one opened set to Mahé. With this, it is possible to see that the island is indeed larger than the rest of the map's land area combined, with a single national park within the island rivalling Africa in size, and eventually reaching a scale of distortion where a road is thicker than Panama. This also reveals that the location of the North Pole, the lake mentioned by Randall, is the Rochon Dam. |
− | + | ===Comparison of actual/proportional areas=== | |
− | + | {| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto" | |
− | + | ! Landmass !! Status !! Official Area<br />(in Millions of Km²) !! Proportion in image<br />(as % of listed areas) | |
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− | ===Comparison of actual/ | ||
− | {| class="wikitable | ||
− | ! | ||
− | ! | ||
− | ! | ||
− | ! | ||
− | ! | ||
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|- | |- | ||
− | | Africa | + | | Africa || Continent<br />2nd largest || 30.3 || 35% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Eurasia | + | | Eurasia || Continent<br />Largest || 55.0 || 30% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | North America | + | | North America || Continent<br />3rd largest || 24.709 || 15% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | South America | + | | South America || Continent<br />4th largest || 17.840 || 7.8% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Antarctica | + | | Antarctica || Continent<br />5th largest || 14.2 || 5.3% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Madagascar | + | | Madagascar || Island<br />4th largest || 0.587 || 2.9% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Australia | + | | Australia || Continent<br />smallest || 7.6 || 2.5% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Greenland | + | | Greenland || Island<br />Largest || 2.13 || 0.87% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Borneo | + | | Borneo || Island<br />3rd largest || 0.748 || 0.37% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | New Guinea | + | | New Guinea || Island<br />2nd largest || 0.786 || 0.32% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Japan | + | | Japan || Island<br />7th largest || 0.377 || 0.10% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Mainland Britain | + | | Mainland Britain || Island<br />9th largest || 0.208 || 0.10% |
|- | |- | ||
− | | Island of Ireland | + | | Island of Ireland || Island<br />20th largest || 0.084 || 0.03% |
|} | |} | ||
− | < | + | * Comic measurements are strictly only of contiguous 'mainland' or main-island areas (outlined area plus outline itself) |
+ | ** Excludes various off-shore islands (often significant, e.g. Baffin Island) | ||
+ | ** Also excludes any drawn internal lakes/seas (except their drawn lines) where large enough to show such a gap | ||
+ | * Real-world areas are compiled from Wikipedia | ||
+ | ** Land areas only, where established (accuracy is dubious in the case of those with significant ice-sheets) | ||
+ | ** These figures usually including all islands, and no attempt has been made to subtract any other listed area | ||
+ | * For the purposes of this table, "Eurasia" continent is the whole of Europe, Asia, India, etc and was clipped from Africa in the area of Suez (and Straits Of Gibraltar, where the drawn lines touch!) | ||
+ | * Similarly, North/South Americas are clipped from each other in the vicinity of Panama <!-- with all due apologies to Central Americans! --> | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
− | + | Bad map projection #248: Madagascar | |
− | + | ||
− | + | Mercator projection but with the North Pole in the Indian Ocean so it exaggerates the size of Madagascar instead of Greenland | |
+ | |||
{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Bad Map Projections]] | [[Category:Bad Map Projections]] | ||
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