Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives Thinking Geographically

Globes and Projections

lies my teachers (and atlasses) tell me

Globe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6wLh6v8y_o

A good globe can provide the most accurate representation of the Earth. However, a globe isn't practical for many of the functions for which we require maps. 

The Globe Advantages: Directions—True Distances—True Shapes—True Areas—True Great circles—The shortest distance between any two points on the surface of the Earth can be found quickly and easily along a great circle. Disadvantages: Even the largest globe has a very small scale and shows relatively little detail. Costly to reproduce and update. Difficult to carry around. Bulky to store.

Projections A map projection is a way to represent the curved surface of the Earth on the flat surface of a map.

Projections Map projections allow us to represent some or all of the Earth's surface, at a wide variety of scales, on a flat, easily transportable surface, such as a sheet of paper. Map projections also apply to digital map data, which can be presented on a computer screen.

Projections The mathematics of projection do not permit any particular map projection to be "best" for everything. Something will always get distorted. Therefore a diversity of projections exists to service the many uses of maps and their vast range of scales.

Projections Every projection has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. There is no "best" projection. The appropriate projection for a map depends on the scale of the map, and on the purposes for which it will be used. 

Projections Four basic ways of projecting the map 

Every map is wrong… No map can rival a globe in truly representing the surface of the entire Earth. Every flat map misrepresents the surface of the Earth in some way. However, a map or parts of a map can show one or more—but never all—of the following: True directions. True distances. True areas (size). True shapes.

Great Circles

Which is the shortest line?

Which is the shortest line?

Kinds of projections

Mercator

Mercator Used for navigation or maps of equatorial regions Directions  are true between any two points Distances are true only along Equator (Two particular parallels can be made correct in scale instead of the Equator) Areas and shapes of large areas are distorted. 

Peters

Mollewiede

Robinson

Lambert

Van der Gritten

Maurers

Bonne

Goodes

Waterman

Waterman

West Wing in

What does the earth look like? link