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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026
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Pick one that suits your application.
If you're not using it to engage in navigation, Equal Earth is a sensible default.
Tools like Google maps are a bit thornier. They're used for navigation, but generally not in a way where angles matter. I could see someone getting themselves into trouble because the angles are screwy. But then again if Google cared about that sort of case, we wouldn't have the recent story of the Gemini hikers.
I'd missed that story.
https://www.androidauthority.com/google-gemini-mountain-trip-hikers-rescue-3708165/
That is not really an answer.
What is the best general world map to teach kids about the world, that we can put in a book or as a poster on the wall, without having to switch to different maps for each lessen, confusing everyone?
If it is not Mercator, then which one is?
For teaching kids Equal Earth is a reasonable choice. Scale and relative global position are conveyed better.
A side effect of Mercator massively distorting size near the poles, neither Europe nor Canada don't feel as North as they actually are.
Kids don't have much of a reason to care about specific angles.
yeah, i tried to figure out the angle between two points off google maps the other day. it fucking sucked. i ended up using another website that was basically a frontend for doing it.
i'm still not sure if it was right. if i go orienteering again, i'm bringing paper maps. precharted routes and angles drawn in so i don't have to look anything up out in the field. orienteering off your phone is stupid.