Editing 2439: Solar System Cartogram

{{comic
| number    = 2439
| date      = March 19, 2021
| title     = Solar System Cartogram
| image     = solar_system_cartogram.png
| titletext = For sentimental reasons, every active Mars rover is counted as one person, although that's not enough to make Mars more than a dot.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by a BELOVED MARS ROVER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

In this comic, Randall has made a cartogram showing the planets in the solar system. Cartograms are a type of map in which geographic area is displayed proportionately to some secondary characteristic - in this case, population. It's not clear whether the population in question is human or all life forms, but in this case it doesn't matter. Since the only confirmed life in the Solar System is on Earth, the other planets have a population of 0{{Citation needed}} and are shown as nothing more than dots. This comic is a joke about electoral cartograms. A standard American electoral map is very misleading. Though the split between Democrats and Republicans is about 50-50, most districts are red. That’s because Democrats live in densely packed districts, while Republicans live in rural ones. This has led to the rise of electoral cartograms, where districts are inflated in relation to population, correcting the misimpression that most of American is conservative. Solar system maps are also often misleading. Mapmakers shrink the size difference and space between planets. Here, Randall has mistakenly applied the wrong solution to the problem, with amusing results.

The title text states that, even though the active Mars rovers count as one person each, they are almost nothing compared to Earth's 7,800,000,000 and doesn't make Mars anything more than a dot. There are a total of five rovers at the moment; in chronological order, they are Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. Only the latter two were functional at the time of the comic's publication, giving Mars a rover population of two. (This is a tie for all-time high. Spirit and Opportunity were active together from 2004 to 2010, when Spirit shut down. Opportunity was still active when Curiosity arrived in 2012, and remained so until 2018. With the arrival of Perseverance in 2021, there are again two active rovers. A third rover, China's {{w|Tianwen-1}}, is currently in orbit around Mars and expected to land in May 2021.)

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

:Caption: Most solar system diagrams are misleading.
:Caption: This chart offers a more accurate view by showing the planets sized by population.
:[The eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are shown in order, with equal space between. Each planet is labeled with its name. All planets other than Earth are indistinguishable tiny dots, while Earth is large and clearly drawn. The view is approximately centered on southeast Asia, the region of highest population density.]

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Astronomy]]
[[Category:Maps]]
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-In this comic, [[Randall]] has made a {{w|cartogram}} showing the planets in the {{w|solar system}}. Cartograms are a type of map in which geographic area is displayed proportionately to some secondary characteristic - in this case, population. From the title text it is clear that the population in question is human (persons) (but even if all life forms where counted it it wouldn't matter, since the only confirmed life in the Solar System is on Earth). Thus the other planets have a population of 0 and are shown as nothing more than dots.
+{{incomplete|Created by a BELOVED MARS ROVER. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
-[[File:2016 presidential election electoral college cartogram.png|thumb|300px|Cartogram showing the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.]]
+In this comic, Randall has made a cartogram showing the planets in the solar system. Cartograms are a type of map in which geographic area is displayed proportionately to some secondary characteristic - in this case, population. It's not clear whether the population in question is human or all life forms, but in this case it doesn't matter. Since the only confirmed life in the Solar System is on Earth, the other planets have a population of 0{{Citation needed}} and are shown as nothing more than dots. This comic is a joke about electoral cartograms. A standard American electoral map is very misleading. Though the split between Democrats and Republicans is about 50-50, most districts are red. That’s because Democrats live in densely packed districts, while Republicans live in rural ones. This has led to the rise of electoral cartograms, where districts are inflated in relation to population, correcting the misimpression that most of American is conservative. Solar system maps are also often misleading. Mapmakers shrink the size difference and space between planets. Here, Randall has mistakenly applied the wrong solution to the problem, with amusing results.
-This comic is a joke about cartograms, which are used, for instance, to show electoral representation. A standard {{w|United States Electoral College|American electoral map}} is very misleading. Though the split between the two major parties, Democrats and Republicans, is about 50-50, most of the area of the U.S. map is shown in the color associated with the Republican Party, red. That's because many Democrats live in densely packed districts occupying little land area, while many Republicans live in rural districts with large land area but few people. This has led to the rise of electoral {{w|Cartogram|cartograms}} in which district areas are shown in proportion to population, correcting the misimpression that most of America is conservative.
+The title text states that, even though the active Mars rovers count as one person each, they are almost nothing compared to Earth's 7,800,000,000 and doesn't make Mars anything more than a dot. There are a total of five rovers at the moment; in chronological order, they are Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. Only the latter two were functional at the time of the comic's publication, giving Mars a rover population of two. (This is a tie for all-time high. Spirit and Opportunity were active together from 2004 to 2010, when Spirit shut down. Opportunity was still active when Curiosity arrived in 2012, and remained so until 2018. With the arrival of Perseverance in 2021, there are again two active rovers. A third rover, China's {{w|Tianwen-1}}, is currently in orbit around Mars and expected to land in May 2021.)
-Solar system diagrams are likely also to be misleading. Illustrators are overwhelmingly forced to use a far more scaled-down spacing between planets, compared to their scaled sizes, even if they can (or care to) maintain consistency in the relative distances and/or radii on linear scales. (The huge factors of difference involved instead may lend themselves to being {{w|Solar_System_model#Scale_models_in_various_locations|physically modeled}} to better give some sense of the spacing and sizing differences.) Here, Randall has intentionally applied the wrong solution to the problem.
-Interestingly, the side of the Earth shown includes China and India, two countries that alone account for over a quarter of all humans on Earth.
-The title text states that Randall, who [https://aiptcomics.com/2019/12/11/munroe-how-to-nycc-nycc19-new-york-comic-con/ once worked on sensors] for {{w|Mars rover}}s, counts every active one as a person for sentimental reasons. However, compared to Earth's roughly 7,900,000,000 persons, Mars is still nothing more than a dot. There are a total of five rovers at the time of the comic's publication; in chronological order, they are Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance. Only the latter two were functional at the time of the comic's publication, giving Mars a rover population of two. A third rover, China's {{w|Tianwen-1}}, landed on Mars on 2021 May 14, making for an all-time high of three active rovers.
-Mars rovers are a [[:Category:Mars rovers|recurring theme]] on xkcd and only a few weeks earlier, a comic named [[2433: Mars Rovers]] was released. This is the fourth comic this year to reference Mars Rovers.
 ==Transcript==
-:[Above a chart are two paragraphs with explanation:]
+{{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
-:Most solar system diagrams are misleading.
-:This chart offers a more accurate view by showing the planets sized by population.
-:[Below the explanation is a list of the eight planets in the solar system. They are shown in order with labels. All but Earth show up only as dots. Earth is large and clearly drawn, with a view approximately centered on Indonesia. The spacing between the dots is equal, and the same distance as from those closest dots to Earth to Earths surface. Earth's label floats below it, while the other planets' labels connect to their respective dots with lines, with text either above or below the line of planets:]
+:Caption: Most solar system diagrams are misleading.
-:Mercury
+:Caption: This chart offers a more accurate view by showing the planets sized by population.
-:Venus
+:[The eight planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are shown in order, with equal space between. Each planet is labeled with its name. All planets other than Earth are indistinguishable tiny dots, while Earth is large and clearly drawn. The view is approximately centered on southeast Asia, the region of highest population density.]
-:Earth
-:Mars
-:Jupiter
-:Saturn
-:Uranus
-:Neptune
 {{comic discussion}}
 [[Category:Charts]]
 [[Category:Astronomy]]
-[[Category:Mars rovers]]
+[[Category:Maps]]