For those who don’t know already, this is called a Voronoi diagram.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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I think I'm too stupid to understand this. How are they straight lines and not at a diameter / in a circle from any given point? It seems... wrong.
Oh! It totally does. I guess I've just never had to apply distances in such a way that they'd butt up against one another to become what looks like basic geometry.
Thanks!
I assume part of the confusuion is that the earth is not flat. If one would create a Voronoi diagram on the surface of a globe, the resulting borders would still be straight lines, but, when projected, it depends on the projection, whether they remain straight.
The creator probably started with a Mercator projected map of Europe and then calculated the distance between any point on the map and all capitals. The distance on two points on the spere, however, cannot be obtained by counting the distance in h/v pixels on the map and applying Pythagoras, as Mercator projection exaggerates horizontal, east-west, distances. So one needs to map the pixel coordinates back onto the sphere and calculate the distances there.
It's definitely a nice map though.
What does the separating line between two circles look like?
More… circles?
I've tried to demonstrate it here. You end up with straight lines because it's always a middle point so it doesn't curve one way or another between the two points.
If the circles had a set radius then you'd have empty space and more circley-looking spots. But since they basically expand until there's a middle point you'll have these straight lines.
I was joking. But +1 for the effort and this looks like art, btw.
Oh dang didn't realize you weren't the same person. Thanks for the compliment, I had fun drawing it
Draw it, then consider where the exact middle point would be. Now do the whole line between them. I think that's the best way to figure it out.
I, for one, support the Republic of Great Ireland and Northern Britain
On this map, you can see why Denmark's capital is Copenhagen. When Denmark controlled Scania and Schleswig-Holstein, it was much more centrally located than today. The borders of Denmark in this map correspond roughly to the borders before the Treaty of Roskilde.
Make Scania Danish Again
Seconded, if Danes would take the hot potato out of their mouth and start speaking proper Swedish. :p
The question is, do Scanians speak proper Swedish?
Depends, when actually speaking Swedish only with Scanian accent, they are ok to understand, but when switching to Scanian – impossible, but in a different way than the Danes.
You either want the danes, or you want someone else who doesnt speak danish, you cant have both
it's also weirdly accurate to where people might commute to copenhagen today
I think that these should not be straight lines regarding that the Earth is a sphere. Especially between Moscow and Helsinki.
it should also take into account transport feasability to at least some degree, like no one in their right mind would associate narvik with helsinki..
For railway, there is already some neat project for visualising the reach in a certain travel time from any city with a station. https://www.chronotrains.com/de/explore
this i an amazingly informative rendering.
What about Edin, bruh?
As a finn, I approve these new borders.
Suur-Suomi !
I’d much rather be ruled by my closest capital.
~~North~~ Macedonia
How did u make this
I don't know how NaytaData made it, but if I were doing it, I would do something like this:
- start with a "blank" un-coloured map of coastline and country borders
- put all the "capital" cities on the map
- make a temporary grid of points over the map and find the closest city for each point
- paint the map based on those temporary grid points
I would use a computer but the same steps would work with paper & pen.
If the OP is using GIS, it can be even easier.
Your first two steps are spot on, but then step three could simply be to add a large buffer for each capital and use some and/or/nor/xor (I'd have to look up to be certain) rules to have the buffer zones not overlap, but end where touching. Apply a color scheme and you're in business.
There's something funky going on north of valleta
Superb way to illustrate.
Where’s Edinburgh?
Scotland is part of the UK sadly
Scotland is one of the four countries comprising The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The others are England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland’s capital is Edinburgh.
I fully support Scotland independence, however at this time it is a constituent country rather than a country, there is a slight distinction.
Hi, Well that’s very interesting. I learnt something today. Thank you for the link.
For the record though I am against independence for Scotland.
Voronoistan Union
what if the uk colonised europe
Those borders don't even line up with longitude and latitude! What is this, amateur hour‽
Vaduz? Did they just choose two cities for capital-less Switzerland?
Vaduz is the capital of Liechtenstein.
No, that is the capital of Liechtenstein
I somehow don't understand this fully but love it
Interesting tall portugal
Cool map.
Though, Switzerland doesn't have a capital.