THE VIDEO SHELF · map projections
Why are we changing maps? (from The West Wing)
A short clip from The West Wing in which staffers meet a group advocating the Peters projection and challenge the Mercator map. It was shown as geography humor at a Salt Lake GIS user group meeting.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN links it in any thread on map projections and the Mercator distortion of country sizes, often calling it a favorite scene.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- SaltLakeUsersGroup
- Topic
- map projections
- Format
- comedy
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 3
- HN mentions in dataset
- 5
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2021–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
This reminds me of my favorite scene from The West Wing where they talk about how misleading the Mercator projection is with regard to the size of Africa. [VIDEO]
gundmc on Hacker News · 2021-05
In The True Size of Africa (2015)There was a memorable scene from "The West Wing" on the biases imposed by most map projections, in particular, how Mercator makes North America look huge: [VIDEO]
randcraw on Hacker News · 2023-06
In Maps Distort How We See the WorldCoincidentally, yesterday I saw (again) “The West Wing” scenes[1] that express this problem (and the related social issues). It was the first learned about map projections and I think if they aren’t already an explicit topic in school, they ought to be. I find it …
sircastor on Hacker News · 2024-05
In Princeton astrophysicists re-imagine world map (2021)
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.
