• bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    17 hours ago

    How does the true size work on a 2D plane? Is it because we’re ignoring connecting landmasses that this gives a better approximation than a full globe 2D map?

    • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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      11 hours ago

      Map projections always have inaccuracies, they make deliberate tradeoffs.

      The common Mercator projection allows the long and lat lines to be straight, but it means shapes near the poles get stretched.

      Some projections do a better job of accurately portraying shapes at the sacrifice of size.
      Some can do shape an size of landmass, but the oceans are distorted.
      Etc, all projections have compromises.

    • Starski@lemmy.zip
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      15 hours ago

      Yes, as far as I’m aware at least, to keep them the same size with the same connections the locations of the geography would be warped compared to where they should be on a globe, that’s the benefit of a mercator map even though it warps the sizes.