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105 Comments
- Jennefah, on 07/09/2008, -0/+65They're all wrong...
THIS - http://viking.hgo.se/maps/england.gif (marked in green)
... is how big England is.
[/member of the "Stop calling Britain "England", there's at least 3 other countries in there, Society"] - auntvonna, on 07/09/2008, -0/+35Cool find!! I'm a geographer, so I LOVE stuff like this! Yes, there are a lot of different projections you can choose and each and every one of them will distort the "truth" to some degree. When you have a rounded (or sphere shaped) planet and try to flatten it out on a sheet of paper, something is getting distorted somewhere. Therefore, a good geographer knows which projection to choose to show what they are trying to illustrate in the best possible way. Interesting, thanks for sharing this!
- platipuz, on 07/09/2008, -1/+27Well that does it ... Digg needs a Maps section.
- avsa, on 07/08/2008, -2/+27dugg for map projections, me love them, even did one for wikipedia once (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Oceans.png ... on how the dolphins would map the earth
Everytime I see a dymaxion map i wish I could play some sort of risk or go like game on it.. - darkmist, on 07/09/2008, -0/+17Americans (at least where I've been) are actually quite used to seeing the "European" world map.
- eigenweasel, on 07/09/2008, -0/+16History demonstrates that England is as big as it wants to be.
- jjb123, on 07/08/2008, -0/+15http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Oceans.png
- macbethslady, on 07/09/2008, -0/+14In his little drawings, Britain consistently looks like a bunny about to eat a cabbage.
- Stonekeeper, on 07/09/2008, -0/+13For a moment there, I thought the article was about England.
- TheTardis, on 07/09/2008, -1/+13How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Long_Is_the_Coast ... - Poweroft, on 07/09/2008, -12/+24I'm sorry, I'm from America, where is England?
- ivan423, on 07/09/2008, -0/+12Maps are different because they use different projections.
Map makers usually put the type of projection used to make the map next to the scale information. - auntvonna, on 07/09/2008, -0/+11Read my reply below also. NO map is accurate because when you flatten a rounded (well, spherical planet) onto a sheet of paper, somethings has to give somewhere. There are localized maps that are pretty accurate because the right projection was chosen, but getting an accurate map of the whole earth is pretty much impossible.
- freak3295, on 07/09/2008, -0/+10Thank you, cause i was about to say the same thing. You know theres these places called Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland!
- Hangly, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9According to chaos theory, the coast of England is infinite in length.
Dammit, TheTardis beat me to it. - Ransack, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9"whoever was drawing the map always made their country look bigger and more important"
Damn all those Greenlander map makers! - AlexBellisBrown, on 07/08/2008, -1/+9Very well written.
- rumdrunk, on 07/09/2008, -2/+10I think you mean the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, not England!
- defectDS, on 07/09/2008, -1/+9And while we're at it, could someone also point out this Ca-nada?
- therightclique, on 07/09/2008, -3/+11The author says "Americans will be used to seeing this map of the world." and then displays a version of the map I've never seen before and I grew up in America. Americans don't consider America to be the center of the world. Sorry. Your stereotypes just aren't going to work. The map shown after "Whereas Europeans will be used to seeing this map of the world." is the only orientation of the world map I've ever seen in any American text book. Why did this author feel the need to paint his or her bigotry towards into the article?
- lofi4life, on 07/09/2008, -2/+10England? Don't you mean Great Britain?
- jamesmcm, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7Filling them all in gives the maximum size not the mean size...
- Kinneas12, on 07/09/2008, -4/+11It pains me as a geography student to have read that. MAP PROJECTIONS ARE NOT AN ARTISTS INTERPRETATION! You can't perfectly flatten the round earth onto a page, so projections are used.
- Vash265, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7Ditto. Evidence for that assertion can be found by examining the terms we use to describe other continents and countries. We don't say that we're in the center of the world, we say we're a 'western nation', and we (as a general rule of thumb) refer to Asian countries as the 'Far East'. That's reflected in nearly every map I've ever seen.
- Scruffydan, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7it is even more complex than that. The earth isn't a sphere, though it is frequently simplified into one. The earth isn't even an ellipse. It is a geoid. The geoid is represented by a datum, of which there are many kinds both local and global, and then the datum is flattened onto a flat piece of paper using a specific projection. Again there are several different projections, with different characteristics.
- jamdogg, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6The Southern hemisphere map is awesome. We would call it "upside down". But there's no law to say North is "up" and South is "down".
- TWiTsoldier, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6I will even go as far as to claim that I have NEVER seen the "American" map in any atlas or classroom. This is actually the first time I've ever seen that version of the world map, and I live in California.
- SSUK, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6Somewhere in Yurop.
- checkacheck, on 07/09/2008, -0/+6Us guys always have had problems with accurately describing size...
- northernmunky, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5"My companion remarked that this was because in days of yore whoever was drawing the map always made their country look bigger and more important."
Putting aside describing Great Britain as 'England'...You're certainly right, in the good 'ol days of the British Empire when the British were exploring the world it was they who drew the map as we still see it to this day. Great Britain as seen in the 5th map down was drawn by the British Empire of the time and we put ourselves in the middle - at the top so it looked like a hierarchy, leading the world as we were at the time.
Greenwich mean time (Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London) (0+ hours) runs though Great Britain making it the worlds 'centre', so as the empire grew, all countries adopted the system.
Incidentally, I'm not in UK right now, but I am in a highly Americanised country and I'm looking at what is titled a 'New World Map' where the North American continent is on the right hand side and looks rather disproportionately large and everyone else looks rather small indeed. Food for thought? - Specialist, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5I love the end how the mean shape is created. Using that logic I could have 138 perfectly accurate drawings of england and one giant circle as someones representation, and the mean of all of those once filled in would simply be the giant circle....
- mrfuzzy129, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection
- craighamnett, on 07/09/2008, -0/+5The title of the blog post is a play on words from this film - This is England (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480025/)
In the blog the author describes it as Britain, msaleem has just misunderstood it. - bosssmiley, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Right of Canada.
- Zippo, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Only a globe can be somewhat accurate... The Earth isn't flat.
- Renster84, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Britian Is England, Scotland Wales.
Its just the central landmass.
The united kingdom adds numerous others. - inactive, on 07/09/2008, -2/+6Yeah this was really interesting when I first learned about it in 9th grade earth science class...
- NecroSexy, on 07/09/2008, -1/+5y hello thar space satellites
- fxu1989, on 07/09/2008, -2/+6About thiiiiiiiiiis big.
|----| - AmyVernon, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4whatever the case, it's still cool. i love looking at all different maps, and it is kinda funky how they all have different perspectives...
- bosssmiley, on 07/09/2008, -1/+5Oh, you mean the desolate and godforsaken Celtic garnish. ;-)
- Duositex, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4Alaska IS as big as the entire western portion of the United States. It's twice the size of Texas...
- svendm, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3No (flat) map is accurate. (a globe is though..)
A simple way to express this is that there are three properties a map can have:
* Correct distances between any two points
* Correct areas
* Correct angles between two intersecting lines on the map
IIRC a 2D projection can't ever fulfill more than two out of the three. - terminal157, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3The link you posted contradicts your assertion.
- terminal157, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3Yeah. I suspect it's a subtle dig at America's stereotypical centrism, and they didn't bother looking into whether or not it was accurate.
- Jennefah, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3Scotland is part of Britain... but Scotland is not part of England.
It would be like saying "how big is California?" then showing a picture of the entire US (and implying that the entire US is California). It's not context or terminology, it's just plain incorrect. - cjh24, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I'm a New Zealander, and I like it :P
- flashingcurser, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3I cannot recall ever seeing Asia split in half on a map.
- damawa42, on 07/09/2008, -2/+5It IS part of Britain.
Great Britain refers to the larger island. Guess what refers to the smaller island?
Ireland is part of the British Isles.
The Republic Of Ireland is not part of the United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Island.
The clue is in the name. - veriix, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3Buried for using bad maps. Hell, those don't even warn people where the dragons are.
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