Tag: Asia

• How accurate were old maps?

  

  Eight old maps, from Ptolemy to Ino’s survey of Japan, measured one way. Errors run from 1.7% to 26.0% of the area mapped, and they follow what a map was for more than when it was made.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Asia, Britain, history, Long view, Map accuracy, old maps, World

• Towns with an asteroid: the places on Earth that have a minor planet

  

  I mapped 2,193 asteroids (2,206 namings) named after places on Earth, each with a line to the observatory that found it. Japan has the most, Finland the most per head, and small observatories name the next valley.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Asia, cities, Naming, place names, Present day, space, Space and astronomy, Wikidata, World, world maps

• Caravanserais of the Silk Roads: a day’s march apart?

  

  960 caravanserais, khans and ribats from Wikidata and OpenStreetMap on a hand-inked map. All together they crowd closer than a day’s march; one dynasty at a time, the Safavid caravanserais of Iran stand a median 34 km apart.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Asia, buildings, Clustering test, Early modern, Hand-inked map, history, medieval, OpenStreetMap, Roads, Transport, Wikidata

• The Wealth of Nations, Mapped

  

  The world economy on one map you can play, from 10,000 BC to 2024. China and India made 45% of the world’s output in 1820, 9% in 1950 and 30% in 2024, and the further back you go the more of the map is guesswork.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Animated timeline, Asia, history, industry, Long view, maps, population, Poverty and wealth, World, world maps

• How wrong is your clock?

  

  For 76% of the world’s people the clock runs ahead of the sun. I measured the gap everywhere, and found out why winter mornings in Galicia stay dark until after nine.

  Tristan Hotham

  Data stories, Games & other interests

  Asia, Atlantic Europe, Clocks and calendars, Place search, Present day, space, Sunlight, World, world maps