Exploring Map Projections, Summaries of Geography

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Exploring Map Projections

Warm-Up

• What is the difference between these three

maps? What might explain the difference?

Distortions and Scale

• No flat map is a perfect representation of the

Earth’s surface because of distortion and because they can not show each detail

• Distortion - Certain areas are stretched out, or their shapes are changed
• Scale – The relationship between the size of the map and the actual size of the area being shown

Mercator Projection

Gall-Peters Projection

Gall-Peters Projection

• Equal Area Projection – Keeps size, but distorts shape
• Remade in 1967 by Arno Peters based off ideas of James Gall in 1855
• Attempts to more accurately display land size - Horizontal distortion near poles

Sinusoidal Map Projection

• Equidistant Projection –

Good for showing distance from some central location

• First created in 1570 by

Jean Cossin

• Heavy distortion away

from central point

Robinson Map Projection

Other Notable Projections

Van der Grinten Projection

• Projects the Earth as a circle
• Extreme distortion as edges
• Created by Alphons J. van der Grinten in 1904

Alber’s Conic Projection

• Created by Johann Lambert in 1772
• Transfers map onto a rounded cone, and then spreads it out - Shows areas accurately but distorts shapes - Meridians are equally spaced

Goode Homolosine projection

• Created in 1923 by John Paul Goode to be an

alternative to Mercator

• Preserves direction, but limits distortion