Fearful Symmetry

Flip a map of Europe around so that Spain and Portugal are at the top and Russia at the bottom, and a surprising left-right symmetry emerges: Italy corresponds to Britain; Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily to Ireland; the Adriatic to the North Sea; Greece to Denmark; Turkey to Norway and Sweden; and the Black Sea to the Baltic. The Balkans are a leftward bulge that has no rightward correlate, but hey, nothing’s perfect.

Europe flipped

11 Responses to Fearful Symmetry

  1. Anonymo August 12, 2008 at 10:02 pm #

    Might there be some geological explanation for how the continent would have ended up that way or is it just coincidence/our brain looking for a pattern?

  2. Administrator August 13, 2008 at 1:20 am #

    Or could it be … oh, I don’t know … SATAN???

  3. Rorshak (1313) August 13, 2008 at 2:52 am #

    Is this what you do to alleviate boredom?

    Well, I suppose it’s better than reading through old copies of World Almanacs like I do.

  4. Black Bloke August 13, 2008 at 12:54 pm #

    Fun site for fun maps:
    http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/

    Not quite sideways, but it gives one a funny feeling after seeing maps the other way for so long.

  5. Gene Callahan August 16, 2008 at 10:57 am #

    Why not leave the map as is and get an up/down symmetry?

  6. Administrator August 16, 2008 at 5:18 pm #

    Why not leave the map as is and get an up/down symmetry?

    For some reason it’s less noticeable that way (for me, at least). I suspect that’s because when it’s flipped with Spain at the top it looks vaguely more like a human figure (Spain the head, Italy and Britain the arms) and so triggers our (my?) human-figure response, which makes the symmetry more salient.

  7. col September 12, 2008 at 1:20 pm #

    It’s more noticeable with symmetry about a vertical axis because there are structures in the visual cortex keyed to pick this type of symmetry out of the visual field – evolved to allow us to spot, for example, the tiger eyeing us for a snack…

  8. anon September 12, 2008 at 4:00 pm #

    looks like a dick or a uterus when u turn it the other way.

  9. Rallie November 21, 2008 at 1:32 am #

    i like it.

    In Ecuador there is actually a movement to teach school children with world-maps like this, where south is left and north is right. apparently it better represents the continents which were colonized by the goddamn americans and europeans, rather than keeping them “subjugated” underneath North American and Europe. (this has been proposed by the heir to one of the richest families in the country…)

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Sjov med europakortet « Verden fra min altan - August 13, 2008

    […] Sjov med europakortet Fra det østrigsk-atenske imperium: Flip a map of Europe around so that Spain and Portugal are at the top and Russia at the bottom, and a surprising left-right symmetry emerges: Italy corresponds to Britain; Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily to Ireland; the Adriatic to the North Sea; Greece to Denmark; Turkey to Norway and Sweden; and the Black Sea to the Baltic. The Balkans are a leftward bulge that has no rightward correlate, but hey, nothing’s perfect. […]

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