Cultural Geography

Thursday, August 31st

 Warm Up
The Answer is

GEOGRAPHY
 Map Distortion
Any time we try to portray a spherical object as
flat, we end up distorting it.
There are 4 areas of distortion:
Area
Shape
Distance
Direction

No flat map can avoid distortion entirely.

 Types of Projections
Cartographers have developed 3 basic
types of projections:
Cylindrical
Planar (azimuthal)
Conic
 Cylindrical
Mercators Projection
Areas and distances are distorted.

Goodes Interrupted Projection

i.e. gores
Distances and directions are distorted

Robinsons Projection
Minimizes distortion, but doesnt eliminate it!
 Cylindrical
Mercators Projection
Areas and distances are distorted.
 Cylindrical
Goodes Interrupted Projection
i.e. gores
Distances and directions are distorted
 Cylindrical
Robinsons Projection
Minimizes distortion, but doesnt eliminate it!
 Planar (azimuthal)
Better for smaller scale maps and
compact areas.
Accurate in the center, but becomes
distorted towards the edges.
 Conic
Most useful for representing wide areas.
Accurate where the edge of the cone
touches, but grows more distorted as it
moves farther away from that line.
 Activity
In partner, draw a map of the world and
try to wrap it around a balloon. What
became distorted? What, if anything, got
left out?
 Types of Maps
Political indicate boundaries, cities and capitals.
Physical show mountains, rivers, lakes and other
natural features.
Topographic illustrate elevation and land forms.
Roadmaps show roads and transportation routes.
Climate give information about weather, temperature,
rainfall, etc.
Economic or Resource illustrate what types of crops
are grow, natural resource extraction, etc.
Political Map

http://s3.thingpic.com/images/R4/bCXoBA6gk7bBSGEM3gyGmbXi.png
Physical Map

http://etc.usf.edu/maps/pages/1100/1181/1181.jpg
Topographic Map

http://www.americansouthwest.net/topo-maps/bierstadt-lake.jpg
Road Map

http://www.onlineatlas.us/highway-map.gif
 Climate Map

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2015/03/seattle_rain_weather_rainiest_wettest_city_in_america_us_precipitation_2015/30db46b6e.jpg
Economic Map

http://www.kidsmaps.com/geography/images/fullsized/wind-resources-transmission-lines.png
 Map Reading Tools
Legend shows you what map symbols
mean.
Compass Rose shows map orientation
(north/south and east/west).
Scale shows distances.
Legend

http://my.ilstu.edu/~jabraun/students/mathis/legend2.jpg
Compass Rose

http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/old_map_compass.jpg
 Scale

http://www.webquest.hawaii.edu/kahihi/mathdictionary/images/mapscale.png