Editing 2951: Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas

{{comic
| number    = 2951
| date      = June 26, 2024
| title     = Bad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas
| image     = bad_map_projection_exterior_kansas_2x.png
| imagesize = 740x706px
| noexpand  = true
| titletext = Although Kansas is widely thought to contain the geographic center of the contiguous 48 states, topologists now believe that it's actually their outer edge.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a TOPOLOGICAL CORNFIELD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the seventh comic in the series of [[:Category:Bad Map Projections|Bad Map Projections]] displaying Bad Map Projection #45: Exterior Kansas.

[[File:Exterior_Kansas_Azimuthal_Projection.png|thumb|left|Projection of the world from the same perspective as the comic. This uses an azimuthal equidistant projection, so distances from the center point (39°50′S 98°35′E) are correct but areas are distorted.]]

This comic portrays an unusual projection of a map of the contiguous United States based loosely on an {{w|azimuthal projection}}. Maps of individual countries are common, especially in academic settings. It is typical for such maps, which only display a limited area of the globe, to use a projection that does not severely distort the shape of the country or its internal borders, but a country that is large enough (as with the United States) will always noticeably suffer from certain distortions of at least one element chosen from distances, areas or angles. This usually occurs at its extremities (though some projections can be made more faithful to its extremities at the expense of distorting its interior). 

Here, however, Randall has opted for a much different projection. Rather than placing the geographical center of the country in the middle and the borders on the outside, this map has gone the opposite direction, with the border of the US toward the center, and the geographical center of the contiguous US (Kansas) and surrounding states distorted to surround the entire map. This, understandably, results in the shape of both the national and state borders being largely unrecognizable as it effectively puts ''every'' bit of the chosen map features out towards the distorted extremities. Much of the internal area of Kansas itself (should one wish to display further internal features) may be located far beyond the comic's edges, perhaps even to infinitely far away on the projected plane.

[[File:Azimuthal_equidistant_projection_SW.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Polar {{w|azimuthal equidistant projection}}, as on the {{w|flag of the United Nations}}, but with an "exterior Antarctica"]]

If Alaska and Hawaii were present in this map and represented in geographically accurate locations (as opposed to inset, as is common in many maps of the United States), Alaska would in the upper right of the empty space, between Minnesota and Washington, while Hawaii would be in the center to the right, off the coast of California. Both would be rather small, with Hawaii particularly compressed (to an extent dictated by the exact projection method used). Additionally, if all 50 states were included, the geographical center would be further to the northwest, resulting in an "Exterior South Dakota" projection.

[[File:now.gif|325px|thumb|left|The map in [[1335: Now]] shows an exterior {{w|Arctic Ocean}} and Antarctica in the center]]
{{Clear}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Map description could be improved? Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:[A distorted map of the contiguous United States with the states labeled, where the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the Canadian and Mexican borders are located closest to the center, with there being a gray void in the middle of the map, while the central U.S. states are distributed in the edges of the panel, with Kansas being in all of the four corners of the map.]

:[Caption below the panel:]
:Bad Map Projection #45:
:Exterior Kansas

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Bad Map Projections]]
[[Category:US maps]]