Lecture Notes on Maps

Flashcards on Map Types and Projections

Mercator map projection

Has by right angles, the focus on longitude and latitude and the shape of the map (square). Positives: accurate direction. Negatives: distortion in size and location of the land masses.

Goode Homolosine Projection

Identifiable by two large humps at the northern part of the map, and four smaller humps at the southern part of the map. Positives: shows true size and shape of earth's land masses. Negatives: distortion with distance, and distortion in the edges of the map.

Fuller map projection

Identifiable by cut out shapes along the map (squares, triangles, rectangles ect.) Positives: shows land masses without interruption, and maintains accurate size and shape. Negatives: does not use cardinal directions (making it hard to read.) and has distortion as you move farther away from the center point.

Robinson projection

Identifiable by a long stretched oval shape. Positives: maintains true size and shape of the land masses. Negatives: distortion at the poles.

Winkel tripel projection

Identifiable as a more rounded and larger shape than the Robinson projection. Positives: minimizes overall distortion as it is distributed across the map, maintains accurate shapes. Negatives: spreads distortion across whole map, but trying to keep distortion concentrated at the poles. (similar to Robinson projection.)

Gall-Peters projection

Identifiable as a rectangle. Positives: shows true size of land masses. Negatives: significant distortion with the shape of the land masses, and also direction. (similar to the mercator map projection.)