Maps

VIEWPOINTS,

or,

How We Look at the Earth and Manage to Find Anything, Including Ourselves

Latitude and Longitude        [ CLICK for MAP ]

[Click Here for more information on Latitude and Longitude]

Maps Maps and More Maps!!!

Even More Maps!!! from U. of Iowa

• imaginary circle around Earth halfway between the poles

• 0^o Latitude

Latitude

• distance in degrees north or south of equator
• parallel to equator
• the poles are 90^o

Longitude

• distance in degrees east or west of the prime meridian

Prime Meridian:

• It is Perpendicular to equator.

• Runs north/south through what used to be the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England

• 0^o to 180^o
• the opposite side of the globe from the 0^o of the prime meridian is 180^o, the International date Line

• 24 time zones/24 hours to rotate
• generally follow longitude lines, adjusted for local needs

International Date Line

• not an 800 number
• 180^o longitude, adjusted for local needs
 

and Another Time Zone Map

Projections                                [Click Here for more Info on Projections]

• Earth's surface is curved, so plotting on a flat map is inaccurate any way you do it.
 

• Mercator - standard flat map
• Robinson - curved flat map
• conic - smaller areas

 Mercator
• correct shapes of continents,
but

• areas are distorted

• longitude lines are projected parallel to each other, but

• remember that longitude lines are not parallel - they meet at the poles!
• area distortions increase as you look closer to the poles

Robinson
 

• similar to Mercator, but less distortion near poles.

- Continent shapes are foreshortened near edges and poles.

• longitude lines are projected as curved, similar to the way they would look on a globe.

so:
• areas are less distorted near the poles than with Mercator

Conic

• used for small areas
• most accurate for the small area
• points from globe projected onto cone-shaped paper later laid flat