Matthew Kane Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Every world map I can ever remember growing up in school has been Atlantic Centred, however I am raising my daughters in New Zealand therefore I have replaced all our maps with ones that are Pacific Centred to teach them geography, it makes sense if you are growing up in the South Pacific to see the world this way with New Zealand being 'Middle Earth' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickel Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 I find maps fascinating things. Lines that are straight, that really aren't, curves that are straight and things that look far apart on maps that really aren't on a globe. Even the flightaware map where the daylight areas curve at either solstices and are vertical at the equinox. Naturally... that's the map I'm used mostly to too. It would be interesting to see a map 'unwrapped' from a different centre - look straight down on Iceland instead of the Marianas for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc_Z Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Map story: I was the deputy foreign editor at a major NYC newspaper with correspondents all over the globe. We had giant world map painted onto the wall of our small conference room. One day there was some trouble in India and our New Delhi person was on home leave. A very senior editor walked into our office and ORDERED us to send somebody from China to India RIGHT NOW, After all, this person said with one finger on New Delhi and one on the place in southwester China where our Beijing person happened to be, you could drive there in a few hours. I cleared my throat and pointed out to him that there was a problem with that -- the Himalayas happened to be in the way. He humphed and walked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 Agreed, the standard layout skews our perception of size, makes the USA appear bigger then it actually is and Africa is really march larger then it looks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerribleT Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Mercator projections always distort the realities in order to achieve a flat map. We always had a globe when raising our children, and indeed our eldest still has it for the same reason, to show them the roundness of the world and give them a better perspective particularly relating to the real centre of the earth, weather development, etc., etc. Combined with basic books on sciences, countries/cultures and history the globe is a great teaching aide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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