Google has made a pocket-sized modification to their Google Maps broadcast that might ruffle a few flat - Earther feather .
antecedently , if you surge out far enough , you would see a map of the Earth know as the Mercator Projection , but more on that subsequently . Essentially , it made the blue planet look about as vapid as it would on the page of an Atlas .
Now , soar upwards out and you will see a glorious 3D sphere . Google Maps has become a digital globe you could spread out and spin to your core ’s delight – and we guess some prostrate - Earthers will be fume .
The decision was announced with little stir in a tweet last workweek .
So , back to the Mercator Projection . It was nominate after its Almighty , Gerardus Mercator . He was a Flemish geographer and map maker who lived 450 year ago , back when women wear lead make-up , Australia was yet to be " discovered " by the Europeans , and Shakespeare was still in diaper ( figuratively - speaking , at least ) .
The problem is that the projection gives a very distorted eyeshot of the macrocosm , make area closer to the poles come along far larger than they are in reality and those closer to the equator much smaller .
This was n’t knowing or done with any animus towards equator - sitting countries like Brazil and Uganda , but because mathematically it made sensation and it attend to its purpose asa navigational instrument . It does , however , have in mind that Sweden look the same sizing as Mexico and Greenland looks bigger than Mexico – neither of which is on-key . ( As you could see for yourself on this toolhere . )
To be clean to Mercator , his map was completed in 1569 . That is 388 age before thefirst satellitewas launched into quad and decades before even thetelescopewas formulate . Yet , it is now 2018 and the continue use of the map despite its many and obvious flaw is confront heavy criticism .
Google responded to this critique themselves in 2009 . According to theGoogle Maps & Earth Help Forum , the first launching did not use the Mercator Projection but the theoretical account was later adopted to aid " conserve angles " and enable close - ups . This is , after all , the primary use of the computer programme .
We ’re not sure why they have convert their mind now but they have , and Google Maps ’ globe mode will lick on desktop internet browser , including Chrome , Firefox , and Eagle . It does not ( yet ) work on wandering internet browser .
