Map Projections

For this assignment we were instructed to create two different styles of projections for the three most common types of maps. As is demonstrated in the posters below, there are numerous ways to present the world, a couple of them are quite aesthetically pleasing, and others are pretty boring; but none the less, there are reasons behind every projection. This assignment was fun for me in the way that the world can look many different ways, and still be the same.

The equidistant map can be used for a variety of reason. The main reason of use is for preserving the distance for measuring reasons. The main problem with this style of map creation, is the loss of real area and angles, as these are not preserved when making these map.

Equal area projection preserves the directions of continents and size of areas, but the northern and southern latitudes are misrepresented. This is caused because this projection enhances the views of only the area size. Since only its area is preserved, it cannot be used for navigation like conformal maps or used to measure distance like equidistant maps. To me, the Bonne Projection above does a great job at preserving the world in terms of area size, but he Mollweide Projection does the best at conforming the map for better aesthetics.

 

Conformal map projections are the most common.  They are the type that is most used in classrooms and most likely to be used for any type of navigation purposes.  The main reason for this is because conformal maps preserve the lines of latitude and longitude.  By looking at the stereographic projection, it is easy to see the distance from the United States to Russia is shorter over the North Pole, but look at the size of Africa.  This is the reason there are other map projections. Conformal maps lack the preservation of area and distance.