Boston public schools map switch aims to amend 500 years of distortion

[brooklynite]

The Guardian:

When Boston public schools introduced a new standard map of the world this week, some young students’ felt their jaws drop. In an instant, their view of the world had changed.

The USA was small. Europe too had suddenly shrunk. Africa and South America appeared narrower but also much larger than usual. And what had happened to Alaska?

In an age of “fake news” and “alternative facts”, city authorities are confident their new map offers something closer to the geographical truth than that of traditional school maps, and hope it can serve an example to schools across the nation and even the world.

For almost 500 years, the Mercator projection has been the norm for maps of the world, ubiquitous in atlases, pinned on peeling school walls.

The Earth is still flat though, right?

[Recursion]

1. Eh. Peters has its own problems

Ultimately I don't like any cylindrical projection. Quincuncial for me!

[cemaphonic]

2. Wow, picking the worst possible solution to a non-problem. Impressive feat.

Pretty much every cartographic authority (National Geographic, major atlases, etc.) moved on from the Mercator decades ago. The only big exception is Google Maps, and that is because the Mercator is useful for accurate navigation at any scale. Now it doesn't exactly surprise me that there are school districts that haven't caught up yet, but promoting this as a brand new chapter of superior cartography is pretty embarrassing. Especially since the promotion of the Gall-Peters is so mired in rather ridiculous sociological and anti-colonial rhetoric.

Plus, it's just a terrible map - it's ugly, the shapes are all distorted, and thanks to the screwy aspect ratio, even the claim to equal-area fidelity isn't really visually apparent. Africa should be about 20% larger than N. America, and about 60% as large as Asia, but thanks to the vertical elongation around the equator, and compression at the poles, it looks quite a bit larger than that to me.

Winkel-Tripel or Mollweide are about the best compromise you can make putting a globe on a flat map; schools ought to pick one of those.

[brooklynite]

3. I think all maps should be drawn to 100% scale so nobody can complain...

[cemaphonic]

6. But where would you put them...

There's probably a Borges story in there somewhere.

[Codeine]

4. Just use a fuckin' globe, guys.

Gall-Peters is ugly as sin and no better than that which it is intended to replace.

[OnDoutside]

5. There was an outstanding BBC series Maps: Power, Plunder and Possession if

anyone can get to see it through Kodi or something. It deals with a lot of this.

Map expert Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps aren't simply about getting from A to B, but are revealing snapshots of defining moments in history and tools of political power and persuasion.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s5m7w

It is on youtube but the quality is awful unfortunately.

Looks like it might be playable here http://docuwiki.net/index.php?title=Maps:_Power_Plunder_and_Possession