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My favourite variety of map is the one made by R. Buckminster Fuller, who took a globe and cut it flat so that it could...

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OMG, Canada has less land mass than the US? I never imagined! And what happened to poor Asia? This is incredible. We...

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ageofgeek said: As weird as it sounds, navigators using the Mercator map don’t *need* to know the actual size of continents and land masses, if they’re not travelling long distances. They just need to know longitudes and latitudes, and the Mercator map represents those really, really well, especially in small areas.

ageofgeek said: That’s kinda how the Mercator map was created. Sailors needed a map that was flat, but also (crucially), a map where they could use the equator and longitudes/latitudes (bc right angles are great for navigating). It also helped that they made it directional (i.e. north is up and south is down), because that also helps with navigation (easier to figure out where you are and where you need to go on a map when compass directions correspond with up, left, right, down, etc.).

ageofgeek said: …even when you cut it, the equator will already be the flattest part. You can press down on the equator of the beach ball and get a pretty flat surface. The other areas of the map (especially those closest to the 2 poles) will be the most round, because they still hold the shape of the ball, and if you try to press down, it’ll make the shape all weird and distorted. You can try forcing it flat, but it’ll create some very stretched, very distorted shapes.

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ageofgeek said: @masterthespianduchovny Hmm, try to picture it this way. Imagine you had one of those beach balls with the earth on it. You want to cut it somehow to make it flat, and you want the equator to be in the center of your flat map. So you cut from the south to north pole through the pacific ocean. Then you try to lay the map out flat. Because the equator is in the center, and it’s the largest circumference of the earth (remember, earth isn’t a true sphere)…