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07-20-2012, 05:19 PM
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Location: CC's Vanilla Suburbs
1,380 posts, read 383,210 times
Reputation: 414
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Anyone want to reformat these pictures, so we can do this properly?
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07-21-2012, 07:49 AM
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1,794 posts, read 971,642 times
Reputation: 1367
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Last edited by animatedmartian; 07-21-2012 at 08:29 AM..
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07-21-2012, 03:49 PM
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Location: 602/520
2,442 posts, read 3,567,691 times
Reputation: 1815
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Quote:
Originally Posted by waronxmas
 , again.
No, I get what you are saying exactly and you are wrong. You are stuck on how many pixels these images are and that's the irrelevant point. We're talking about square mileage and shapes have everything to do with why the maps look the way they are.
Increasing the images to the same pixel size will not show the same information (though I suspect it makes some feel better).
Here's what I mean.
In your post you took one of images and increased it to the size of another one. Contrary to what you state, this give a false perspective of the area involved. Let's first put both pictures side by side as you did:
Now, let's actually measure the distances involved using the handy ruler tool in Google Maps.
First, San Antonio:
As you can see San Antonio's city limits covers (at an extremely rough estimate) approximately 34 miles north to south, and 23 miles east to west.
Next, Phoenix:
As you can see Phoenix's city limits covers (at an extremely rough estimate) approximately 41 miles north to south, and 13 miles east to west at it's widest point (some areas of the city are 5 and 8 miles across and smaller).
So why different sizes of the images? In order to display the distances involved at a specific "height" in Google Maps, different zooming is applied to accommodate as much as possible on the screen. While it appears to create an unreleased view of an area, it's actually the most accurate way.
While I had to add the lengths involved to show you how far of an area this covered, one who lives in that area would immediately know the distances involved. This was the point of the original exercise: To show the relation of the city limits to the surrounding metro area in each of these cities. The size of the images is irrelevant because it doesn't create an accurate relation of area.
To make you feel better though, I zoomed the map for Phoenix at a closer level ("5 miles") so that the size of the San Antonio and Phoenix maps would roughly "match".
Again, the only way to get all cities to show the correct relation to each and the surrounding metro area was to "zoom out" at a non-ridiculous height so that all cities could more or less be seen in how their environs are situated in their respective metros. Too close and the larger cities in land area wouldn't be shown fully. Too far away and the smaller sized cities would look like dots. This was the happiest median I could find. |
Interesting that you chose to measure San Antonio from exact borders, but you start the measurement tool in Phoenix in the middle of the city. Phoenix is 22 miles wide at it's widest point, not 13. I don't know how you missed 9 entire miles. Start the tool at 66th St. and Camelback Road and drag it out El Mirage Road and Camelback Road. That is 22 miles.
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07-22-2012, 01:15 AM
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64 posts, read 32,697 times
Reputation: 44
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can someone please post accurate maps? I would do it but I don't know how to
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07-22-2012, 10:21 AM
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1,794 posts, read 971,642 times
Reputation: 1367
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HtownLove
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Wow. Houston pretty much outlines the metro for most cities. Except for the the Top 3 cities and the other Sun Belt cities. The only drawback to this app is that it doesn't show the other city's city limits at the same time. But Houston takes up a lot of space to meet the same population as Philly (one rank under Houston) and takes a decent sized chunk out of Chicago's west side suburbs.
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07-22-2012, 12:14 PM
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Location: Philadelphia/South Jersey Area
2,171 posts, read 950,293 times
Reputation: 1000
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Quote:
Originally Posted by animatedmartian
Wow. Houston pretty much outlines the metro for most cities. Except for the the Top 3 cities and the other Sun Belt cities. The only drawback to this app is that it doesn't show the other city's city limits at the same time. But Houston takes up a lot of space to meet the same population as Philly (one rank under Houston) and takes a decent sized chunk out of Chicago's west side suburbs.
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I did not know that Houston's city limits would almost reach Atlantic County, NJ. It also looks like some detached parts of its city limits would reach near Trenton, NJ as well. |
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07-22-2012, 04:08 PM
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Location: Carrboro and Concord, NC
969 posts, read 722,324 times
Reputation: 1107
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This thread is funny. It started out being about data, before devolving into a primer on map reading. I suppose paper maps will never go totally extinct, what with pixel wars erupting all over the place. With the paper ones, all you gotta remember is how to re-fold them.
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07-23-2012, 12:46 PM
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Location: Up on the moon laughing down on you
18,049 posts, read 10,176,134 times
Reputation: 6765
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Quote:
Originally Posted by animatedmartian
Wow. Houston pretty much outlines the metro for most cities. Except for the the Top 3 cities and the other Sun Belt cities. The only drawback to this app is that it doesn't show the other city's city limits at the same time. But Houston takes up a lot of space to meet the same population as Philly (one rank under Houston) and takes a decent sized chunk out of Chicago's west side suburbs.
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what metro does Houston outline? Just about every metro are leagues bigger than Houston's limits. Boston is the only city in the list that is not top 3 or Sunbelt and Boston's metro is what 10 times larger than Houston's limits |
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