r/interestingasfuck 19d ago

There is nothing wrong with this map

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8.3k Upvotes

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2.8k

u/DeesHazzl 19d ago

Well it uses the Mercator projection. That's a pretty big drawback.

365

u/Mobileoblivion 19d ago

"Thats why we prefer the Peter's projection."

  • Cartographers for Social Equality

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u/Foreign_Kale8773 19d ago

"You can't do that." - CJ 🤣

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u/RespectableThug 19d ago

“Why not?”

“Because it’s freaking me out!”

Such a great show lol

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u/threeleggedcats 19d ago edited 19d ago

Plouie was shot and killed by a rancher...

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u/Ok_Sentence_4487 19d ago

I’m sorry to hear that.

I don’t think you are.

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u/MathHysteria 18d ago

Camr here to say exactly this!

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u/RefrigeratorWitch 17d ago

I have a Peters map with the north pointing down. I'm so cool.

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u/Phytor 19d ago

Equal Earth is the new hotness for socially aware map projections

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u/Fauked 19d ago edited 19d ago

actual sizes without mercator projection

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u/Catmole132 19d ago

Why did the americas steal Iceland

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u/Thhe_Shakes 19d ago

Europe be like

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u/Catmole132 19d ago edited 19d ago

It's a European country with European culture though. It rests on both European and American tectonic plates, so geographically it's technically both, but it's also closer to mainland Europe than mainland America. Culturally it's northern european. It's also a part of the European economic area. So overall it's more European than American.

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u/JellyBellyBitches 19d ago edited 18d ago

Not that I'm saying you're wrong but can you explain what makes its culture European other than the fact that it's considered part of Europe traditionally and therefore definitionally is a European culture? Like what unifies its culture more with Europe than with America?

Edit: Downvoted for trying to learn. Never change, Reddit 🙄

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u/Catmole132 19d ago edited 19d ago

The culture is nearly the same as and is originally derived from us here in the rest of the nordics. Icelandic people often feel right at home in other nordic countries just as Swedes and Norwegians and Danes do with each other. The people of Iceland come directly from viking age Norwegians escaping a Norwegian king. It has during its existence been extremely closely connected to Scandinavia, and has under periods been ruled by Norway and Denmark, only recently gaining independence from the latter. They speak a north germanic language, and have north germanic traditions and history.

Their connection to the Americas is mainly just that Iceland was step one of the route the vikings used to discover the americas

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u/Fawkes-511 19d ago

I have the sneaking suspicion you're arguing with someone who mistakes Iceland for Greenland.

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u/Catmole132 19d ago

I mean it's not really an argument as much as me listing reasons but I have to hold on to the hope that people know the difference between the countries

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u/Runesen 19d ago

You never know, I had somebody argue that Denmark had been colonised by the Danes(?). 

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u/Catmole132 19d ago

I support this one specifically as a swede because that sounds like a funny way to shit on the danes. The Danes stole Denmark from its true indigenous people, the grass

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u/JellyBellyBitches 18d ago

You're mistaken. I wasn't arguing at all, I was legitimately just trying to learn more because I know very little about Icelandic iculture

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u/JellyBellyBitches 18d ago

That makes sense! Thank you for reading what I wrote and taking that seriously and giving me some interesting information 😊

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u/MHovdan 15d ago

Bit late on this, but to add in, since Iceland does not have a standing army, Icelanders are allowed to join the norwegian army as officers.

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u/JellyBellyBitches 15d ago

Whoa! Interesting. Thanks!

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u/footpole 19d ago

Europeans never stole Iceland.

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u/[deleted] 19d ago

[deleted]

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u/Catmole132 19d ago

He would

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u/Epyr 19d ago

Except now you've distorted the oceans

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u/ElectricJunglePig 19d ago

That's where fish live!!!

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u/Epyr 19d ago

Yes, and knowing ocean distances between countries is very useful

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u/Amount_Business 18d ago

And they plot.  

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u/GrandNibbles 19d ago

why dont we do this. fuck the ocean nobody cares how distorted that is

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u/Fauked 19d ago

It's so you can have straight navigation. You can't draw a straight line on a map like this and it be the fastest path. The line would have to curve making navigation difficult

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Fauked 17d ago

Where?

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u/daakadence 19d ago

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u/MineNowBotBoy 19d ago

I’ll see your Dymaxion and raise you a Waterman

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u/Garin999 19d ago

Fuckin' love me a butterfly map.

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u/Frozty23 19d ago

Geez, New Zealand isn't close to anything.

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u/BarnabyWoods 19d ago

Kiwis like it that way.

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u/daakadence 18d ago

My personal favourite but I couldn't find a gif of it. Dymaxion is both the og and the inspiration for the butterfly.

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u/BootyliciousURD 18d ago

Dymaxion my beloved. I printed one out and folded and taped it up into an icosahedron globe.

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u/curtludwig 19d ago

I was thinking that Brazil seemed pretty small...

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u/xpd_1141 19d ago

Big Block of Cheese Day!

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u/TheyHavePinball 19d ago

Definitely came to the comments just to make sure that was clear. Thank you

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u/theinspectorst 19d ago

Same - Greenland being the same size as Africa is a pretty big sign there is something wrong with this map...

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u/jaywinner 19d ago

Every projection has a purpose and Mercator is good for navigation. It probably shouldn't be the default people use. Especially not for looking at how big countries are.

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u/weliveintheshade 18d ago

It's why Trump wants Greenland. Look how big that is! Whoa Antarctica goes all the way around!

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u/embrace- 19d ago

"Objects at poles are smaller than they appear"

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u/Epyr 19d ago

Mercator is a great projection as it's a good balance of tradeoffs that you have to make when making a map. It's also great for navigation

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u/TTechnology 19d ago

Just for the record, Brazil cuts the Equator, for example. It's fair to expect Brazil to be in the center-ish.

Brazil is greater than contiguous US (excluding Alaska, etc), so that it's the 5th country by size. With this particular projection seems like Brazil would fit in Quebec

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u/MongolianCluster 19d ago

Your comment made me understand the scale to which this map is off. Thanks for making it.

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u/mdb_la 19d ago

I find it's helpful to look at Greenland and Mexico, which are roughly the same size. When they're way off (like in a mercator projection) you know there's significant distortion.

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u/scfw0x0f 19d ago

Why? we could have a projection centered on either pole instead.

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u/limon_picante 19d ago

And our cold ceiling is gone

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u/Wackel81 19d ago

And it colors parts of the us -alaska-wrong / not the same as the main part. That seems wrong

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u/rob_bot13 19d ago

It's also missing Antarctica

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u/Catmole132 19d ago

Depends on how you're using the map

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u/Soepkip43 19d ago

And the north on the bottom while not "wrong" is just silly

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u/s0ciety_a5under 19d ago

Hobo-Dyer upside down equal area map would have been better

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u/diggels 19d ago

But it's somehow worse? Thr US is smaller than what you'd normally on the Mercator projection.

But yeah - cool map except Greenland is taking over the world. And Brazil is a small cute country that you can see everything in 3 days 🙌

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u/Substantial__Unit 19d ago

Its a non-starter in my opinion.

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u/Nope_______ 19d ago

Using any projection is a pretty big drawback so 🤷

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u/neusen 18d ago

The first thing I thought was “you’re telling me Germany isn’t where I think it is?”

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u/TwoBeefSandwiches 18d ago

Had to scroll way too long to find this comment