Editing 3122: Bad Map Projection: Interrupted Spheres

{{comic
| number    = 3122
| date      = July 30, 2025
| title     = Bad Map Projection: Interrupted Spheres
| image     = bad_map_projection_interrupted_spheres_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x573px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = During the most recent glacial maximum, it's believed that land bridges extended from the surfaces and connected several of the spheres together.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was recently created by AN INTERRUPTED EDITOR. Could use a slightly more, ahem, ''formal'' vocabulary...  Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

This is the ninth comic in the [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections series]] displaying Bad Map Projection #194: Interrupted Spheres. It follows [[2999: Bad Map Projection: The United Stralia]], released nine and a half months prior.

There is no perfect way to draw a map of the world on a flat piece of paper. Each one will introduce a different type of distortion, and the best projection for a given situation is sometimes disputed. As was mentioned in [[977: Map Projections]], the smartass response to this dilemma is to use a globe - which maps the world onto a ''sphere'', thus minimizing distortion by using roughly the same shape as the world itself. This "map projection" goes a step past the smartass and proceeds straight into absurdity, by projecting ''each continent'' onto a sphere. This bends entirely too far in the other direction to the dilemma; whereas a typical map projection adds distortion by trying to show the (curved) planet on a flat surface, this "map projection" adds distortion by showing the (relatively flat) continents on a much more sharply-curved sphere than the planet they are actually part of.

The title text refers to {{w|land bridges}}, narrow bits of land between larger landmasses. When glaciers covered much of the Earth, the water locked up in the glaciers meant that sea levels were lower, as well as the overlying icepacks being higher, and things like the {{w|Bering land bridge}} spanned areas between continents that are currently ocean. [[Randall]] suggests that these formed connections in the gaps between the spheres. This implies the absurd idea that the projection reflects an underlying reality where the continents ''actually'' exist on separate spheres, rather than this simply being an attempt at a "better" way to display Earth's landmasses. In this situation the land of the 'bridges' would reach like spires, vertically upwards from the surface of each sphere, until they descend down onto their counterpart neighbouring sphere.

==Transcript==
:[This comic depicts seven circles each representing globes. Above these circles there is the following text:]
:Bad map projection #194:
:'''<big>Interrupted spheres</big>'''
:To avoid the distortion inherent to a single flat world map, each continent is projected onto its own globe. 

:[Each of the seven globes has some part of the landmasses of Earth projected on to it, with a label of said areas name. The globes are arranged in position so their landmasses lies roughly where they would be on a standard map with North America in the upper left and Australia in the lower right part of the picture. That is except Antarctica which is placed beneath Asia close to but left of Australia. The labels on the seven spheres in the three columns they form from left to right are:]
:North America
:South America
:Europe
:Africa
:Asia
:Antarctica
:Australia

==Trivia==

In this comic [[Randall]] indicates that he believes there are seven continents. This is {{w|Continent#Number|up for debate}}, especially with Europe being considered part of the larger Eurasian continent, rather than distinct from Asia, and whether the Americas are two continents or one, temporarily joined via the Caribbean oceanic plate. See for instance {{w|CGP Grey}}'s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uBcq1x7P34 What are Continents?] video for a discussion. (Grey concludes that there are five, in his opinion.)

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]