Map+Projections


 * Map Projection**

What is cartography? is the science of map-making.

What is a cartographic map projection? It comprises many problems and techniques, including: > Why is the Earth’s shape called a spheroid or oblate ellipsoid? Because that's what the philosophers called it. Needs more...
 * measuring Earth's shape and features
 * collecting and storing information about terrain, places and people
 * adapting three-dimensional features to flat models (my main concern)
 * devising and designing conventions for graphical representation of data
 * printing and publishing information.

How is latitude measured? What does it show? using a sextant, measure the angle between the horizon and the north star. There is a locater that will show the latitude and longitude.

What are the Earth’s hemispheres? What separates the hemispheres? Eastern/Western: separated by the prime meridian (origin of longitude) Northern / Southern: Separated by the Equator (origin of latitude)

Explain why the Tropic of Capricorn and Tropic of Cancer are important. The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn define the Tropics, as well as mark the northernmost and southernmost latitudes at which the Sun shines directly overhead at midday during the June slostice and December solstice respectively.

Why doesn’t the sun set at the Antarctic Circle on December 21? the earth has gone halfway around its orbit, and is opposite the point where it was on the summer solstice. The southern hemisphere of the earth is tilted toward the sun, and the sun's rays are perpendicular to the earth's surface at 23 ½ degrees south

What is the accepted Prime Meridian? Why is this a convenient location? 0 degrees longitude Give the specific area/countries it goes through...

Why do all map projections have distortion? What things are distorted ? to preserve some properties of the sphere-like body at the expense of other properties.

Why are Mercator maps often used incorrectly as world maps? How should it be used? Why ? the Mercator projection has fallen into disuse from many reliable sources.

Look at the Equidistant Cylindrical map. What happens to the actually distance the farther north or south of the Equator you measure? Why? its shorter on one side.

Why is the shortest distance between two points on a map usually not a straight line? Explain. because the earths surface is curved

What are the pros and cons of using a conformal map? pros- preserves angles cons - an easy route would not be the most economical choice in terms of distance, as the geodistic line shows.