Do USanian global maps...

[Beardy]

Put the America’s front and centre (or should that be center) or do they use the meridian as the central focus like the global maps we all grew up with. I should think that it’d make discussions of East and West as geopolitical entities a little confusing if they did.   

It’s just a random thought for a grey Monday morning.

[Regulator]

The (Gall-)Peters Projection map is now the international standard (adopted by the UN, most IGOs and educational institutions).  The standard version uses the meridian and puts Africa in the centre of everything.

There's a rather fabulous Southern hemisphere version of the Peters Projection that I saw as well...

[hubner]

If the Pacific Ocean is in the middle, the US is well to the right:


Places like Japan, China, SE Asia and Australia would be more in the middle though.

For the US to be in the middle, you would need to cut Eurasia in half.

[PaulF]

If the Pacific Ocean is in the middle, the US is well to the right:


Places like Japan, China, SE Asia and Australia would be more in the middle though.

For the US to be in the middle, you would need to cut Eurasia in half.

So what you're saying is that the "Far East" is actually the "Mid-West"?

[Steph]

Well, the northernmost, westernmost and easternmost US states are all Alaska...

[Ben T]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

[Redlight]

There's a rather fabulous Southern hemisphere version of the Peters Projection that I saw as well...

Is that the 'upside down' version? An Australian friend of mine used to have that on her wall and it caused me a serious brainache to look at.

[grams]

For the US to be in the middle, you would need to cut Eurasia in half.

They have no problem doing that:


Apparently common in schools.

[Karla]

You can go from one side of the map to the other via the Torugart Pass.

[bobb]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

The world is the world. It takes up the same amount of paper no matter how you arrange it. The point of having 0 longitude in the middle is fairly obvious I would have thought?

[Regulator]

There's a rather fabulous Southern hemisphere version of the Peters Projection that I saw as well...

Is that the 'upside down' version? An Australian friend of mine used to have that on her wall and it caused me a serious brainache to look at.

Yep...   it takes a bit of getting used to.

[Jaded]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

The world is the world. It takes up the same amount of paper no matter how you arrange it. The point of having 0 longitude in the middle is fairly obvious I would have thought?

Surely 0 should be on the left. (or right)

[Beardy]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

The world is the world. It takes up the same amount of paper no matter how you arrange it. The point of having 0 longitude in the middle is fairly obvious I would have thought?

Surely 0 should be on the left. (or right)

That would make sense if longitude went from 0* to 360* but as it goes 0*to E180* and 0* to W180* putting zero in the middle makes more sense

[Ham]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

The world is the world. It takes up the same amount of paper no matter how you arrange it. The point of having 0 longitude in the middle is fairly obvious I would have thought?

Actually, no. The world is round and any 2D representation distorts it fundamentally. "0 Longitude" is an accident of history, without any meaning.  The projection and datum point you use depends on your purpose and preference. I have a pacific centred one to mark our travels, it provides a better perspective of the insignificance of the UK than a 0 centered one.

[PaulF]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

The world is the world. It takes up the same amount of paper no matter how you arrange it. The point of having 0 longitude in the middle is fairly obvious I would have thought?

Actually, no. The world is round and any 2D representation distorts it fundamentally. "0 Longitude" is an accident of history, without any meaning.  The projection and datum point you use depends on your purpose and preference. I have a pacific centred one to mark our travels, it provides a better perspective of the insignificance of the UK than a 0 centered one.

And becomes less useful depending on your projection.

[Mr Larrington]

There's a rather fabulous Southern hemisphere version of the Peters Projection that I saw as well...

Is that the 'upside down' version? An Australian friend of mine used to have that on her wall and it caused me a serious brainache to look at.

Mr Google shews Atlantic- and Pacific-centred versions.  The former appears to overcome the #1 complaint of commenters on Terrible Maps' Farcebok page, viz. the lack of New Zealand by having all of it at the top left and a substantial chunk repeated at top right.  Far Eastern Russia and Alaska also appear twice.

The latter puts Captain Cook's Mistake closer to the middle and cuts Greenland in two.

[grams]

** Immediately googles south pole version **

** is not disappointed **

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuthal_equidistant_projection#/media/File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_south_SW.jpg

[Davef]

And becomes less useful depending on your projection.

... and finally a realistic image of the flat earth we live on. Projections onto a sphere are possible for those that cannot understand the non euclidian geometry of the world disc.

[Mr Larrington]

YA Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevski AICMFP

[“Oi! You! Outside! Now!” – Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann]

[rogerzilla]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

Yesh, forget those little islands like Midway and Iwo Jima.  They were never of any strategic importance.

[Feanor]

I thought the main point of the orthodox ones with america on the left is to avoid wasting paper on the virtually half the world that is the pacific ocean.

Using the same cylindrical projection ( eg Mercator ) then the position of the prime meridian makes no difference to the amount of paper or ink; just where it is lefty-righty.

[ElyDave]

Of course it does, if you start at Greenwich, but only go to +/- 160 degrees for example, you can use a smaller piece of paper at the same scale.  Shirley its more the case that its printed on a standard paper size and scaled to fit in a way thats easily readable, then adjust white space or lost ocean?

[Davef]

Of course it does, if you start at Greenwich, but only go to +/- 160 degrees for example, you can use a smaller piece of paper at the same scale.  Shirley its more the case that its printed on a standard paper size and scaled to fit in a way thats easily readable, then adjust white space or lost ocean?

New Zealand might object.

[ElyDave]

They always object, but you make my point very well, any printed map is a bit arbitrary in it's representation

[ian]

We can ignore New Zealand and just edge the maps with terra incognita.

Reminds me that when we deploy a new mapping engine we have to do regionally defined maps, so people with IPs located to China see Taiwan when they click on China, and everyone else sees Mainland China and Taiwan, we have to befuddle Kashmir for India/Pakistan, Western Sahara for Morocco, the Israelis don't want to see any mention of Palestinian Territories etc. And, of course, IP location being imprecise...