UN to vote on adopting new world map that shows true size of all countries | Hacker News Reader

UN to vote on adopting new world map that shows true size of all countries

independent.co.uk

14 pointsMarkoff12 comments

As I understand: * Mercator has accurate shapes but inaccurate sizes. * Equal Earth has inaccurate shapes but more accurate sizes.

Inaccurate shapes are not a problem when looking at a big (global) static picture. Your brain still matches the shapes and connects the dots. However in a digital app when zoomed in, street views of NZ, east China, Chile, and Canada would be completely warped to be borderline unusable for most people. Zooming in would likely force the app to switch or gradually transition back to a shape-preserving projection, likely Mercator.

If Google would actually get on board with this UN resolution, would we start seeing shapeshifting countries and cities in Google Maps whenever we zoom? How do you counter this?

You can smoothly interpolate between different projections, and the scale differences are large enough that it should be gradual enough not to notice much. Either way, globe view is always superior.

As the inventor of Globe On a String™©® I am WAY ahead of curve. It was touch and go there for a minuit, but the god like feeling of fishing a string through a planet and suspending it at my sole will, but well ok, I keep it in the livingroom and anyone who visits,but well again, ok, actualy everybody is wierdly intimidated by a Globe on a String™©® and wont give it a swing, though I'm telling you megalomania does have it's moments, and Globe on a String™©® is perfect for those moments where you realy want to take a disproportionate view of the world.

Typical. They're trying to make the 3rd world huge

Why do you think that the accurate size isn't worth representing?

It's mathematically impossible. Political mathematics always ends well

Political mathematics like the Mercator projection which shrunk Africa to an unrealistic degree?

Is that why we adopted the Mercator projection? No, it's not

I don’t know who “we” is, but seeing as this map was made in the 1500s by a European there is certainly an argument to be made that it is rooted in a Euro-centric view of the world.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/04/un-vote-world-...

Obviously. Every projection will be off. Unless you are a 15th-century sailor, there is no reason to favor the Mercator projection over any other one. Sticking with it is also a political choice.

The "3rd world" is huge. Anyone who thinks otherwise is clearly in need of a less-misleading map.

On a traditional Mercator projection Africa looks to be smaller than the United States and Canada combined. In reality Africa is 50% larger - and those are the 2nd-largest and 3rd-largest countries in the world!

They're huge if you look at area, but what about other axes?

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