mmcirvin: (Default)
mmcirvin ([personal profile] mmcirvin) wrote2005-07-20 07:07 pm

(no subject)

An interesting thing about Google Moon is that the craters work pretty well as a Tissot's Indicatrix; zoom out and you can tell exactly how much the Mercator projection magnifies things near the poles (without squashing the crater shapes at all).

So I suppose that means the crater distribution on the Moon, at least as depicted on this map, is not completely self-similar but has a characteristic scale. Or is it just that the crater rims themselves have a characteristic scale, so that the magnified small ones are much more rugged-looking than the giant impact basins like Mare Imbrium? The coastlines of Earth are much more self-similar, in any event, so that it's hard to tell by eyeball just how much a map projection affects relative sizes, at least on a political map.

[identity profile] tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com 2005-07-20 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
So the moon *IS* made of cheese!?

[identity profile] twillis.livejournal.com 2005-07-21 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
Whoa! I can see my house from there!

(Anonymous) 2005-07-21 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Yummy!

(Cllang, clang, clang, clang. Whoops! Too late!)

[identity profile] designgirl.livejournal.com 2005-07-21 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Here's hoping you don't post anonymously! Clang, clang, clang, clang. Whoops, too late!