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italy and hungary flags are similar via rotation

Open lepras opened this issue 1 year ago • 7 comments

lepras avatar Mar 20 '23 03:03 lepras

Thanks for the PR!

However, are Hungary and Italy two countries whose flags you actually confuse or is it just something that you think should be added based on the general similarity? (This isn't intended to be a trick question etc. :))


(The idea behind the "flag similarity" field is to provide information which might help learners who confuse the flags in question because of the similarity, not simply list all flags that resemble the given flag. Many flags might be vaguely similar to a flag, but not similar enough that people are likely to confuse them, and listing all of them would just overload the user.)

(Also, currently, rotation isn't among the criteria that we consider when determining "similarity", but that could be changed.)

aplaice avatar Mar 20 '23 23:03 aplaice

"Major differences (M): (1) same colours in different positions (e.g. two swapped, three rotated)"

https://dailynewshungary.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/italy.jpg

Just exposing yourself to the flags and their countries, is how I approached the cramming and I genuinely get them confused most of the times. A 90 degree exact rotation doesn't really change the perception to the naked eye if you know what I mean.

lepras avatar Mar 21 '23 02:03 lepras

Fair enough. Though, how many other cases are there? If it's a couple, no worries, but if we have to add 10 more similarities because of this change in the guidelines, it might be a bit much.

axelboc avatar Mar 21 '23 07:03 axelboc

I have only done european flags till now, found just one such case.

lepras avatar Mar 21 '23 08:03 lepras

Sorry for the late reply!

"Major differences (M): (1) same colours in different positions (e.g. two swapped, three rotated)"

By "rotated" colours we mean a cyclic permutation of the colours (e.g. {red, white, black} → {white, black, red}), rather than a geometrical rotation. This might not be clear from the wording, though. :) (Should we change it?)

Though, how many other cases are there?

The only other cases that I can think of (without doing an extensive survey) are the (France, Luxembourg, Netherlands) group and the (Peru (assuming lack of coat of arms), Austria, Latvia (possibly)) one. (All other possible pairs/groups have an emblem in at least one of the flags, which would disqualify the pairing/grouping.) (I haven't looked at the colour differences, here (or in the Hungary, Italy pair either, for that matter).)

If we were to do this, should a geometrical rotation be a critical or a major difference?

Also, how would we deal with geometrical differences (width etc.)? (The flags of Hungary and Italy have different geometries (a ratio of 1:2 and 2:3), but when the bands are rotated anyway, that geometrical difference might not matter, visually.

aplaice avatar Mar 25 '23 11:03 aplaice

By "rotated" colours we mean a cyclic permutation of the colours (e.g. {red, white, black} → {white, black, red}), rather than a geometrical rotation. This might not be clear from the wording, though. :) (Should we change it?)

I think you should mention cyclic permuted rather than rotated.

If we were to do this, should a geometrical rotation be a critical or a major difference?

After reading their differences and criteria for similarity, major seems more apt.

lepras avatar Mar 26 '23 14:03 lepras

Getting back to this, sorry for the radio silence 😅

While I don't deny that one might confuse these two flags, I still think that their two greens and their two ratios differ significantly enough that considering the two flags as similar is a bit of a stretch. We don't want hints for more similar flags to get lost in the noise, especially since there are already a lot of hints.

I'm not against adding "90° colour rotation" as a similarity criteria, but I would be more inclined to categorise it as a critcial difference in order to qualify pairs of such flags as similar only if they don't have any major/minor differences (thus disqualifying Hungary/Italy, sorry 😁).

axelboc avatar Dec 21 '23 12:12 axelboc

Closing since I don't think that it's likely we'll be merging this. Sorry @lepras!

(I'm not opposed to adding 90° rotations for flag differences, as such, but since I don't confuse these categories of flags, I'm definitely not the right person to spearhead this.)

aplaice avatar Jun 13 '24 14:06 aplaice

90° rotations for flag differences, as such, but since I don't confuse these categories of flags

Makes sense, thx for the replies and giving this issue a little time of yours!

lepras avatar Jun 13 '24 17:06 lepras