Does "land area" assume a country is perfectly flat? on HackerTube: recommended by 3 Hacker News commenters across 3 separate months, 2020–2023.
explainer · evergreen
Matt Parker of Stand-up Maths asks whether a country's reported land area accounts for hills and mountains, working through how surface area depends on the resolution of elevation data. It follows up on a question from a viewer and work by researchers who measured it.
HN recommends it in map projection and coastline threads as a fun look at how measurement choices change area figures.
“Matt Parker from Standup Maths made a great video on exactly this subject”
4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
Then it becomes a coastline problem, with different answers depending on the resolution of your elevation data. Great video on this from Matt Parker (focusing on area in this case): ▶ this video
in “The longest straight line in Great Britain (without crossing a public road)” · View on HN
Matt Parker from Standup Maths made a great video on exactly this subject a few weeks ago. "Does land area assume a country is perfectly flat?" ▶ this video
in “The True Size Of Countries: Mercator projection” · View on HN
>But then realized that the coastline paradox must also exist for 3D surfaces (TINs or DEMs or whatnot) so asking “what is the area of a surface on earth” can be a very complex question if dealing with elevation. StandUpMaths did a great video on this recently, asking whether national land area includes elevation and which nations would gain/lose the most land area if it were/weren't: ▶ this video
in “Coastline Paradox” · View on HN
> over every hill, dale, nook and cranny in England That would take topography into account which another rabbit hole like calculating the perimeter of Great Britain. Cf. Stand-up Maths, Does "land area" assume a country is perfectly flat? ▶ this video
in “Concrete: The most destructive material on Earth” · View on HN