Conrad Hackett 
Mercator size vs. true country size
by Neil Kaye
by Neil Kaye
Greg Burns@conradhackett Why do we still use the Mercator projection it's useless.
DogeMocenigo@gregsbrain @conradhackett that’s the old question of whether we want the shape to be correct or the area…
Dave@gregsbrain @conradhackett It's incredibly useful for navigation. Any compass direction shown anywhere on a Mercator projection is accurate. It's no use for illustrating the relative size of countries - because that's not its purpose.
A screwdriver isn't useless, despite being of little or no use for hammering in a nail.
Toast Conger@Daveosaurus @gregsbrain @conradhackett Thing is, we don't navigate on a global scale. Sure, the lines are useful, but if you're a boat you navigate on much smaller pieces of the projection where the distortions of size are basically irrelevant. Blowing up to the planet is only convenient for books and... there they are deeply misleading.
Also, can I just say that this stupid projection is the reason we almost always end up with a #mapswithoutNZ ?
RobertAs a Canadian, I'm quite happy with Mr Mercator. It's like we're standing on top of the map in big heels and our hands over our head going, "don't mess with us."
@conradhackett ok, so I stand corrected that the Mercator projection is sometimes useful for compass based navigation.
timmy@gregsbrain @conradhackett Mercator is pretty useful to navigate by unless you are at the poles because lat and long lines are straight. I don’t think the intention was ever to accurately compare landmasses. Unfortunately it’s overuse has caused people to trust it too much
Tzafrir@gregsbrain @conradhackett
Because it came very handy for Google Maps and all that followed. And frankly, there are no issues with it unless you get to a global scale.
Because it came very handy for Google Maps and all that followed. And frankly, there are no issues with it unless you get to a global scale.