• rumba@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    5 hours ago

    No, there aren’t perfect maps. There ARE better maps.

    Mercator’s one trick is north is always straight up, so it’s great for navigation with a compass. If you’re navigating the oceans on a ship, or even using GPS in your car, Mercator is GOAT because you don’t have to twist it as your drive to keep north up. Unfortunately, we default to Mercator just about everywhere in places where it really has disadvantages.

    If you’re just looking at the map to locate things, or compare countries there are dozens of better maps and our decision to default to mercator for most uses us