1799: Bad Map Projection: Time Zones

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Bad Map Projection: Time Zones

Title text: This is probably the first projection in cartographic history that can be criticized for its disproportionate focus on Finland, Mongolia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• A double sized version of this image can be found by clicking the image at xkcd.com - the comic's page can also be accessed by clicking on the comic number above.
• Recent comics always have a larger (often the original) drawing using _2x added to the file name to indicate a different size. Modern browsers decide witch resolution is shown. But at this comic the larger version is also clickable on the image. See much more details on this under the expanded explanation for the large drawings category.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Table needs to be filled out for each country, both named and unnamed that are shown in the map with explanation of its timezone and why it looks as it does on the map. (Especially Russia, China and Greenland as well as those from title text needs explanation like that). Some of the info already given in the explanation could be moved to the table. Finally all labeled countries should be listed in the transcript as well. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

This is the second comic in the series of Bad Map Projections. The first was released just over a month before this one and was called 1784: Bad Map Projection: Liquid Resize.

Notably, "Liquid Resize" was #107, while this comic features #79, so either Randall has put them in a new arbitrary order or he is counting down from least to most terrible.

Conceptually, the series is a comment on the fact that 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 very disputed. Randall previously explored 12 different projections in 977: Map Projections, and expressed his disdain for some types he sees as less efficient but whose users feel superior. None of them are really good as any 2D map projection will always distort in a way the spherical reality, and a map projection that is useful for one aspect (like navigation, geographical shapes and masses visualization, etc.) will not be so for all the others. Local maps of smaller areas can be quite accurate, but the idea of both these map projection comics is to map the entire globe on a flat surface.

Randall, being Randall, runs with the idea. Has made yet another map projection that is not only inaccurate, but utterly unusable, though less so than the previous one.

This comic shows a map projection in which countries are placed according to the time zones that they fall under. Based on the way the Sun shines on the Earth, these time zones, which are based on the sun's position in the sky, would best be divided by roughly longitudinal (North-to-South Pole) lines.

However, this is not the case in practice, as the defined time zones tend to have very jagged boundaries. Since Randall knows he cannot fix the boundaries of the time zones, he instead "fixes" the world by making a map appear to match up with the time zone system. This results in bizarre distortions such as the large, gum-like strands of Greenland and enormous gulfs in parts of northern Russia.

The effect of this map is "punish" large countries with a single time zone - for instance, China, which uses UTC+8 across the whole country - and countries that share large time zones - for instance, almost all of Europe is packed into the Central European UTC+1 zone - by shrinking these down. Conversely, countries that span multiple time zones are stretched out - for example, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as pointed out in the alt-text - as are those that belong to very small time zones - Finland and the Baltic states look huge because they are the only countries using the UTC+2 Eastern Europe time.

Other map projections distort countries this way as well, but based on their actual physical location as opposed to their position on imaginary time zones. The Mercator projection is infamous for distorting Greenland in this way, to the point that it appears to be larger than Africa despite being nowhere near the same size.

The title text lampoons the fact that the same phenomenon occurs on Randall's bad map projection, but for countries that do not tend to experience this on typical projections. Several smaller countries such as Finland, Mongolia, and the DRC, appear much larger than their actual size due to being stretched across time zone boundaries.

See the table below for lots more information on the comic, but here are some further details.

Some countries look especially odd. Greenland gets some jutting out points - these are the towns of Danmarkshavn (UTC) and Ittoqqortoormiit (UTC-1), which use different time zones to the rest of the island - while Russia gets big holes in it in places where there is a 2 hour time zone difference between states. For instance, in reality Komi and Khanty-Mansi touch each other. However, Komi uses Moscow time (UTC+3) and Khanty-Mansi uses Yekaterinburg Time (UTC+5). There is no state between them using UTC+4, so Randall draws a big gap in northern Russia here.

The map is imperfect since it doesn't allow for half-hour time zones (India, for instance, is on UTC+5.5). Instead, countries that use fractional time zones are shifted so they straddle the two time zones, and are then marked with an asterisk (*). There's also no mention of daylight savings - all countries shown are given the base winter time. Depending on the time of year, countries will shift around - around June, many northern hemisphere countries will move east, while some southern hemisphere countries will move east around December. Randall attempts to preserve adjacencies where possible - for instance, Chad and Sudan are neighbors even though Chad uses West Africa Time (UTC+1) and Sudan uses East Africa Time (UTC+3). Randall draws an extremely thin strand connecting the countries though Central/South Africa Time (UTC+2), even though no part of Chad or Sudan uses this time. Similarly, a thin strand of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan is shown projecting into the UTC+4 time zone in order to separate Russia and Iran, which do not really share a border.

Australia has most of these peculiar timezone as there is a section in the center of Australia with half hour time zone, so it's marked with the *, but it is not the entire country, so the * is not behind the name as it is for instance with India. also the only extra detail mentioned in the map is for Australia. It is the UTC+8:45 time zone that are listed. It is used only by 5 roadhouses in South Australia and Western Australia covering a population of only a few hundred people.

There are several labeling errors in the map. See below.

Table of countries and their timezones

• This table should include all countries not just those labeled.
  • Also continents should be mentioned as they are also more or less distorted not necessarily depending on the distortion of the countries within.
• The labels used should be noted first, and the full country name (with wiki link) should be mentioned if abbreviations has been used in a bracket after.
• Timezone(s) for the country should be listed.
• Clear distortion shown in the image should be described
• Explanation for that based on timezone as well as other interesting details can be noted.

Country/Continent	Timezone(s)	Distortions	Explanation
Add more - just several examples made so far:
Europe (not labeled)	UTC+0 – UTC+2 (?)	Compressed with the countries of mainland Europe pressed closer from both sides	Most of Europe uses UTC+1 but these countries in reality spread over a much larger area than just one zone. This is why central and western states are so compressed. Portugal is the only country in mainland Europe which uses UTC+0 - that's why it sticks out a bit towards the British Isles strip. The eastern countries (except Belarus and the European part of Russia but not the Kaliningrad enclave) use UTC+2. These are: Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Greece. In reality, they occupy a smaller area on the map, but on Randall's map they are stretched to fill the UTC+2 zone strip. Finland looks specifically distorted, partly because in reality it borders with Norway on the north, and Norway uses UTC+1. On Randall's map Norway is compressed into UTC+1 strip and Finland suddenly got some coast on Barents Sea. Poland (abbreviated POL. on the map) and Belarus (BEL) have common border but differ by two time zones, Poland using UTC+1 and Belarus UTC+3 (Moscow time). Therefore on the map they have protruding 'tongues', touching one another, squeezed between Lithuania and Latvia on the north and Ukraine on the south. Randall got Turkey a bit wrong, however: it's European part is stretched into UTC+2 zone, but in reality Turkey uses UTC+3 on its whole territory.
UK (United Kingdom)	UTC+0	None	The country is fully within the single time zone used for the country. UK defined the timezones so their time zone is by definition the one with UTC+0 (or GMT).
Russia	UTC+2 – UTC+12	Three deep troughs almost cutting Russia in pieces, but not quite, also much longer at the normal	Russia covers several timezones but also uses several, and should thus stay as large as normal. However, there are regions where it is only the southern parts of Russia that used a specific time zone, and two other regions above have a border whit two hours difference. This seems to occur three times explaining the troughs. (More on this and the length to the east needed)
Ukraine	UTC+2 (UTC+3 in disputed regions)	Crimea stretched from the rest of the country	Since the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the peninsula has used Moscow time (UTC+3). The sovereignty of Crimea is disputed, but it is currently de facto controlled by Russia, and Randall colors it like Russia. Two breakaway provinces in the east, Donetsk and Luhansk, also use Moscow time. These are not shown.
Greenland	UTC-4 – UTC+0	Two landmasses strechted from the rest of the country	Greenland stretches from UTC-4 to UTC+0 with most of the country being UTC-3. UTC-4 is only applicable to Thule Air Base in the southern part of the Hayes-Peninsula, UTC-1 and UTC+0 is used in smaller areas on the east coast of Greenland. Even though UTC-2 is not used in Greenland at all, the country is depicted as a single landmass with two small strips of land connecting the UTC-1 and UTC+0 landmasses. These two strips should be considered infinitesimally thin but depicted to clarify the two areas are not separate islands but connected with the rest of Greenland.
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Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

[This transcript will note everything readable from the 2x zoom version found by clicking the comic on xkcd.]

[Caption at the top of the panel:]

Bad map projection #79:

Time Zones

Where each country should be, based on its time zone(s)

[Below the caption there is a map of the world divided and colored by political boundaries, with outlines around each continent in black and around each country in dark gray. Antarctica is not included. Bodies of water are white, and countries in pale shades of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The map is clearly distorted, with Europa and Africa in the center, but not all continents or countries looks wrong. Africa, Australia and North America seems least distorted. But the bottom part of of South America is very slim, Greenland has two chewing gum like blobs stretched away from it to the right, Iceland is over the UK, and most of Europe has been compressed. Finland though is too large. In Africa especially Dem. Rep. the Congo has been enlarged. The worst distortion is in Asia, where especially Russia looks weird with three deep troughs down the length of the country and the end to the right seems to be much longer than usually. But also China is completely wrong as it has been compressed, Mongolia taking up most of its usual position.]

[Most countries over a certain size have their name listed in a gray font. Small countries like Ireland and Haiti has their name listed because it can be noted in the oceans around them. Most other countries have the name inside the country, but if there is not enough room abbreviation are used like Germany which has Ger. noted. There are though several small countries in the middle of Europa which has no name, as there are simply not enough space for even an abbreviation. This is countries like Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark a long the coast towards England (with not enough Ocean space either for the name) and the small central countries like Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg. There are also a few specialties mentioned when time zones are not divided in full hours, for instance a foot note regarding half hour time zones. Below all the mentioned countries will be listed starting from the left, going through each (political) continent from top left and down, and the same for each country in the continent:]

[North America:]

Canada

United States

Mexico

Cuba

Haiti

Jam.

D.R

[Central America:]

Gua.

Hon.

Nic.

CR.

Pan.

[South America:]

Columbia

...

Argentina

[Europa:]

Greenland

Iceland

Ireland

UK

Norway

...

Bulgaria

[Africa:]

W.S.

Algeria

Tunis

...

South Africa

Madagascar

[Asia:]

Russia

...

Iran*

Afghanistan*

...

...

Russia

...

...

India*

Nepal*

...

Bur*

...

...

China

N.K*

S.K.

Japan

[Oceania:]

Malaysia

Indonesia

Philippines

Papua New Guinea

[Australia. In the country there is a star * in the middle of it above the name:]

*

Australia

New Zealand

[Below Australia there is an arrow pointing to a pointing the south cost and below that a foot note for the stars * used above:]

UTC +8:45

(One small area)

*=Half-hour offset

Errors

• Randall mixes up Morocco and Western Sahara (a disputed territory)
• East Thrace, the European portion of Turkey, is shown in Eastern European time (UTC+2). Actually, like the rest of Turkey, it uses UTC+3

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Discussion

Notice The what if? Coast-to-Coast Coasting came out February 8th, at the same time as 1796. This was noted yesterday in the last comics discussion. For the first time in a year with less than two weeks between releases --Kynde (talk) 14:27, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

"Screw Hawaii and the rest of the Pacific!" Z (talk) 04:56, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

It is actually way less distorting than I expected 141.101.104.239 06:38, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Aahhhh, why are Suriname and French Guiana switched? They have the same timezone ... 162.158.150.22 06:52, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Can anyone explain why Russia has all the hills and valleys? East-west distortion I understand, but what is the reason for the north-south distortion? Nonnal (talk) 07:06, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I actually know this one - Russia has 11 timezones, but some of these form "islands" in the South of the country. From West to East, the North has: (+2 Kaliningrad), +3, +5, +7,+9, +10, +11, +12. Going West to East through the South adds back in +4 (Samara), +6 (Omsk), and +8 (Irkutsk), each corresponding to one of the "dips" in the projection. Atmarsden95 (talk) 07:15, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Why is Morocco labeled as U.S. and the Sahrawi Republic as Morocco? 141.101.88.88 07:24, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

That actually says "W.S", for Western Sahara, but either way I can't see a good reason for the inversion. Both are on UTC+0, and Morocco is on UTC+1 in summer, while WS doesn't use DST, apparently... So even if that was being taken into account, the countries are STILL the wrong way around. Possibly, this is related to the French Guiana/Suriname inversion. Atmarsden95 (talk) 07:55, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

And Western Sahara is the name used for the disputed area south of Marocco by the United Nations. The Sahrawi Republic have only limited recognition and does not control all of the disputed area. Pmakholm (talk) 07:59, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

The switch is just a mistake, maybe caused by a map not depicting Western Sahara.--Pere prlpz (talk) 09:06, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

It would be cool to see countries moving in and out of Daylight saving time. --141.101.69.69 07:56, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I'd like that, too. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 08:42, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Why did he use 6 colors? And do the colors code for something? 162.158.202.58 08:06, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I think it's just for easier depiction without any further meaning. It's like in 850, I think... Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 08:42, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Should we replace the comic image with a bigger version? I've already uploaded the image: http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/File:bad_map_projection_time_zones_2x.png sirKitKat (talk) 09:02, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Should we compile a table of oddities in the map?--Pere prlpz (talk) 09:07, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I think yes. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 09:12, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

So am I getting this correct? The map is made to be divided into timezones with perfect vertical borders and the countries are then distorted to fit perfectly within their timezones? Shouldn't Greenland then be "split" since it spreads from UTC-3 to UTC but is not actually using UTC-2? 162.158.92.118 10:41, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes. But actually there should be connections since these parrts of Greenland are no separate landmasses. But the connections should be infinitesimally thin (but not of thickness 0) to be accurate. However the style these connection are made imply that they're just connection and no actual landmasses, I think... Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 10:59, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I have added Greenland to the table, please feel free to provide a more coherent wording if necessary, english is not my native language :) 162.158.92.118 12:42, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Only for understanding to the image sizes: The image tag uses the srcset feature and the browser decides if bad_map_projection_time_zones.png or bad_map_projection_time_zones_2x.png is shown. At this comic there is also a link to the large version. But the srcset feature is not new at this comic. Look at the source:

<a href="http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bad_map_projection_time_zones_2x.png">
  <img src="//imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bad_map_projection_time_zones.png" 
   title="This is probably the first projection in cartographic history that can be criticized for its disproportionate focus on Finland, Mongolia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo." 
   alt="Bad Map Projection: Time Zones" 
   srcset="//imgs.xkcd.com/comics/bad_map_projection_time_zones_2x.png 2x"/>
</a>

--Dgbrt (talk) 12:21, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining that. So this is just the first time that the large version is linked from the normal sized version. Is that then the explanation for the 2x images appearing in Garden? --Kynde (talk) 14:27, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

The comic Garden is one of those rare dynamic comics. Each of them are different and in this case a javascript file called "linden.js" creates the picture. But the next one (https://xkcd.com/1664/) is like this one I wrote about. Go to that comic and use rigth-click -> view image (or whatever your browser says). If your display has a large resolution you will see the large picture, if not you will see the standard. But I don't know when this scrset feature was implemented for the first time. Early comics don't support this.--Dgbrt (talk) 14:55, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

The people from 850 should have a fun time with this.XFez (talk) 13:30, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

"Finland and the Baltic states look huge because they are the only countries using the UTC+2 Eastern Europe time." That's not really true: Romania and Bulgaria use that time zone too, as does Greece. Angew (talk) 07:20, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Does Randall know about this wiki? I would assume he does. Also how does a comic become completed? I have filled in explanations for comics that I think meet the missing criteria so am I allowed to remove the incomplete thingy or does an admin have to do that?XFez (talk) 13:38, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi XFez, sorry for the late reply but this was hard to find. I don't know if Randall knows..., but maybe he does. But he does NOT support this wiki in any way -- like he does not here: http://forums.xkcd.com (while everything is now on https that board isn't ;) ). So there is no final explanation and he says 100 points! To your second question: You are allowed to remove the "incomplete tag". But the given criteria is not enough, often that simple text covers not all. Please check also the discussion page. So, when you are not sure just change the criteria text and mention it at the discussion page. And for older comics you probably should talk to someone else here because nobody checks every comic every day.--Dgbrt (talk) 19:00, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Transcript TLDR;

I have started a discussion on this topic here: User_talk:Kynde#Transcript_TLDR.3B. I think I'm not the only one who wants the transcript to be short and only describing the essentials. Maybe we can define a Transcript-Guide.--Dgbrt (talk) 11:55, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know about the comment in the previous comics discussion Dgbrt. I still disagree with you that we should not write down every word written in the comic even if it is not spoken. As else this comic would have none. But also the labels for the countries should be written down. But if that is as the end of the transcript, it would not trouble the reader! --Kynde (talk) 14:27, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I added the names of the countries before noticing this discussion as I wanted to remove the incomplete tag, I apologize if I inconvenienced anyone due to this. IMO the text written in the comic deserves a mention but should be formatted in a way it doesn't bother those who don't need it. The text inside the square brackets should be kept concise.Asdf (talk) 18:48, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

I shortened the description on top by a few words. The countries for each continent are now in one line. I added the incomplete tag again because the discussion is probably not finished. Feel free to remove this tag.--Dgbrt (talk) 19:39, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Labelled time zones

I created a map overlaid with more obvious time zone divisions, labelled with some of that zone's more popular abbreviations. Tried to keep 'em to Standard Time rather than Daylight. Seen here. --VonAether (talk) 17:39, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

Fantastic VonAether. I was just thinking of making such a map, but your looks much better than what I had in mind. Would it be OK to download your map to these pages and insert it in the explanation? --Kynde (talk) 19:54, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Absolutely; that's why I made it. Go nuts. :) --VonAether (talk) 21:07, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks a lot VonAether. I will put it on the explantion now (I also posted my question on VonAether's talk page, and his answer is copied in here from there). --Kynde (talk) 21:32, 18 February 2017 (UTC)

Palawan is missing again?--162.158.230.45 02:07, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Table entries

• Shall we put all countries there even if they are not on the map because of their size? San Marino, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Malta etc. What about all the Oceania? If not, shall we remove those not shown, but already put in the table?
• What about regions, i.e. Middle East? I'd vote for removal
• I would definitely remove Lake Victoria, it has no use in this context. Or shall we add the Great Lakes?

Malgond (talk) 17:44, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Since nobody commented on it, I went ahead and removed regions, not shown countries and the Lake Victoria. -- Malgond (talk) 13:33, 24 February 2017 (UTC)

Overlay Time Zones Map / comic

I created an overlay, taking Australia and Greenland as reference points. It makes it easier to find the distortions. I am not yet very happy with it. But if you like the idea I would try to do region focused maps... Unfortunately even the large version of the comic resolution is worse compared with the time zones map which I took from Wikipedia. --LaVe (talk) 18:19, 25 February 2017 (UTC)