Editing Talk:2082: Mercator Projection

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The choice of characters in this comic is...interesting. I never got the impression that White Hat was gullible. [[User:GreatWyrmGold|GreatWyrmGold]] ([[User talk:GreatWyrmGold|talk]]) 21:27, 7 December 2018 (UTC)

I can convince people that all of Randal's maps are real? [[User:Linker|Linker]] ([[User talk:Linker|talk]]) 00:53, 8 December 2018 (UTC)

But wait, how does driving north reach Alaska? I thought it was an island near Hawaii to the southwest. More seriously, should we mention that the Mercator does have useful properties such as preserving angles or is that too much for explaining the comic? [[Special:Contributions/162.158.186.108|162.158.186.108]] 06:12, 8 December 2018 (UTC)

People putting a joke in the incomplete tag but completely ignoring the “Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete.” part is really annoying [[User:DrMeepster|DrMeepster]] ([[User talk:DrMeepster|talk]]) 07:38, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
:Good Dr. It is an autobot that fills in the first page of the explanation, and here it is always clearly incomplete. Others may later delete that it is a bot that has made the explanation, but not knowing if it is complete, but also now knowing if it is not. And then there is the large text stating do not delete too soon. So I agree that reasons should be given for old comics that are suddenly listed as incomplete, but that the newest comic is listed as incomplete is just basic info ;-) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 18:29, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
::Why doesn’t the autobot explicitly say that it is incomplete by virtue of being a new comic? [[User:Saklad5|Saklad5]] ([[User talk:Saklad5|talk]]) 19:54, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

Perhaps it should elaborate on "ridiculous" i.e. Cueball claims that the Mercator projection changes the topology of land and water masses, not just their relative size and (oh it's a long time since I did maths, so I'll call it) squishiness. [[User:ColinHogben|ColinHogben]] ([[User talk:ColinHogben|talk]]) 10:19, 8 December 2018 (UTC)

Mercator map projection has the advantage that shortest line between two points on Earth (on globe) is straight line in this projection. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 11:17, 8 December 2018 (UTC)
::I'm afraid you are mistaken. A straight line on Mercator translates to a {{w|rhumb line}}, not a {{w|great-circle distance|great circle}}. Rhumb lines are useful for navigation, more so than great circles if all you have is a compass, but they are not (necessarily) the shortest distance between two points. [[User:Jaalenja|Jaalenja]] ([[User talk:Jaalenja|talk]]) 08:17, 10 December 2018 (UTC)

The largest islands in Lake Ontario are either the western parts of the Thousand Islands or the southern-most part of the City of Toronto.  Neither would be considered "in the middle" of the lake.  While Lake Erie has some islands in the middle, like Middle Island, Lake Ontario does not have similar navigation targets/hazards. [[User:Nutster|Nutster]] ([[User talk:Nutster|talk]]) 17:11, 8 December 2018 (UTC)

Both the XKCD comic (in its caption) and the explanation (in its current form) misuse the word "fact."  The point that Randall is trying to make is that you can convince people of '''lies''' or anyway '''mistaken ideas''' by referring to the Mercator projection.  '''Facts''' are by definition correct. [[Special:Contributions/162.158.63.166|162.158.63.166]] 13:53, 9 December 2018 (UTC)
::Facts can also be anything ''presented'' as objectively real. Under that definition, this is proper usage. [[User:Saklad5|Saklad5]] ([[User talk:Saklad5|talk]]) 20:02, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

I wonder if it is possible to make a map projection stupid enough to support this at first glance. [[User:Saklad5|Saklad5]] ([[User talk:Saklad5|talk]]) 20:05, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

The trivia should be merged with the main explanation. The fact that a projection can't erase a border, such as the land border between the US and Canada, is an important part of the joke. -[[Special:Contributions/108.162.238.161|108.162.238.161]] 06:33, 10 December 2018 (UTC)